My mother and dad, Conrad and Mabel Russell Schumacher, were farmers in Hennepin County, Independence Township, about a mile west of Loretto, Minnesota. I was born on October 5th, 1924, into a family that would grow to become seven children. I was the middle child. My older sisters, in order, were Mary, Francis, and Irene. My younger brothers, to follow, were Charles, Robert and Thomas. I had the feeling that I was in the middle of two families. I attended St. Peter & Paul Catholic School, until grade seven and then transferred to Wayzata Public School for my 7th and 8th grades.

In the meantime, my dad took a job with the Minnesota Department of Conservation as a Game Warden. He was assigned to the Pierz area, a community just east of Little Falls in the middle of the state. He held off moving the family to the new location until after his probation service was cleared and after another election was completed. In those days, these jobs were a bit precarious because of the politics involved.

Being the oldest male in the family, it was up to me, at the age of 11, to do whatever I could to run the farm. A few years earlier, he had bought a tractor, the first one in the Loretto Community, and he gave me permission to operate it to the best of my ability. On his time off, dad would come home to plow, cut hay and other work he could squeeze in. My job was to take care off all of the loose ends I could possibly handle and still keep up with my school work. In the fall of the year, my sister Irene and I moved up to Pierz, so we would not loose too much school. We lived in Pierz and rode a bus to the High School in Little Falls. After a little more than a year’s time, dad was transferred over to Little Falls.

Whenever I was not in school, I was “looking for” or “doing” work of some kind. I found work at the Ed. Porten Conoco Station, part time, polishing cars. After about a year there, I was able to run the station and worked every Saturday and Sunday. At that time, jobs were hard to find and at least I had something to do to have some money of my own.

I graduated from High School in the Spring of 1942 at the age of 17 and began looking for a different, more meaningful, kind of work. I wound up with the Minneapolis Star-Journal Newspaper Agency to include the Little Falls Area and Camp Ripley, a National Guard Training Camp about seven miles north of Little Falls. I had an office where the carriers came in to get their papers which included about 1,500 copies for the local area and 800 for Camp Ripley. This was quite a number for a relatively small community. I bought a 1939 Ford to deliver to the stores and Camp Ripley. Considering the times, it was good money, but long hours of work each day. I ran the business from June 1942 through August of 1943, when I received my draft notice. From that point on, my life picked up a lot of speed and a variety of complications which we will cover in the chapters which follow.