Christopher Homestead

This classic picture shows the Christopher Homestead around 1915 with some of the children in the Franklin motorcar, one of many cars that Carl owned over the years.  He sold this Franklin motorcar in his estate auction in 1917 and bought a new 1917 Model Ford.   The house had 1 large bedroom upstairs for all the children and one downstairs for the parents.  Carl was a very hard worker and sometimes worked 24 hours a day to keep the farm going.  All the children helped and learned the meaning of work very early.  Carl raised all sorts of animals from sheep, ducks, turkeys, chickens, geese and even rabbits and skunks to sell for furs. The winters in Medina were very cold and the children often had to take horse and sleigh to the one room school house one mile away..the Peterson School.  Carl was easy going, liked to visit with people and had a great sense of humor. He wrote the news of Peterson Township for the local paper called The Medina Citizen from 1915-1932.

Quotes from the paper: "For Sale:  1917 model Ford and a couple of haystacks.  Inquire at the Christopher Camp but not too early in the morning or you may find the owner in bed."
Quotes from Ken and Bob: "Pa had a model T touring car and was coming home from town one day when the kids spotted him going from one side of the road to the other.  What had happened was a radius rod had  come unhooked and he couldn't hold the car on the road.  Within a couple of days he traded it for a Page car.  It was a big old car but they were living in style when they rode in this car.  Sometime later that old car just quit so Pa said to the kids, "You kids can have that old car."  Well that was just like giving the kids a truckload of candy.  They tore it apart until there was nothing left of it.  They didn't even attempt to put it back together.  They just left the parts scattered all over the place!"