family

Dwight Eisenhower was a distant relative of mine by marriage. His brother, Roy, married Edna Shade who was related to the Eckhoff family. My mother’s mother was an Eckhoff. I have been collecting material about ‘Ike’ for about 40 years and finally published an article in a peer-reviewed journal, Kansas History, on his religious upbringing. My article was given the Edgar Langsdorf Award for superior writing, as determined by a panel of judges appointed by the Kansas Historical Foundation.

I was born in Providence Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. My home was Detroit until the family moved to a Detroit suburb when I started school.  Those days, gone forever, are fondly remembered. Our house was a large duplex on a street lined with duplexes (a home for two families), each with small yards and little space between each house. All we needed to mow our postage-stamp lawn was a manual push mower. After graduating high school, most of us found a job in a local auto factory or in retail sales until marriage.

One story I came across when working for the Michigan circuit court was especially memorable. I will let the policeman involved tell the highlights of his story.

“Early on the early morning shift, I noticed a car parked on the side of the road, close to the road. I walked to the car to determine why it was there. I was surprised to see a young woman sitting in the driver's seat.

“Madam, why are you illegally parked here?” I asked.

“My car engine died and it finally stopped here. I was lost and did not want to start walking home alone in the dark.”

Harvey was born in Missouri on October 20, 1916, the 5th child and 2nd son of Joe and Emma Haldiman. He arrived in Montpelier on New Year’s Day of 1940 and was employed at Hause Valve Company until his retirement in 1985. Harvey began as the office manager and served as president/CEO of Hause from 1976 to 1985. In 1933, engineer Ralph Hause (1906-1976) and his partner A.C. Brammer formed Hause Valve Company to manufacture specially designed valves used in underground oil-well equipment.