Our spreading family evolved with our country: an apprentice blacksmith became a railroad builder, the son of a flatboatman became the owner of 50 steamboats on the Mississippi and our grandfathers and great-grandfathers built thriving businesses in real estate and lumber.

In St. Paul and in speeches around the country, our Farnham grandfather promoted literature and theater. He made friends with authors, actors, and corresponded with Theodore Roosevelt.

While the men were busy "building a new country" our grandmothers made space for the children. "Play is a child's work" was the ideology that gave the women's family responsibility importance equal to tat if the men. Our mother and our grandmother respected children's voices and recorded their words.