CLARENCE EDWARD BALTER HISTORY by Alice Faye (Balter) Mickelberry

Clarence was born in Butler county Kansas on August 28, 1897. He was the fourth child and the first son of Elizabeth Louise Robinson Balter and Edward Balter. The family moved about and at one time lived in Enid Oklahoma and also Tom Ball, Texas. As far as I know his father farmed. Clarence's schooling ended at 8th grade but he read a lot and kept well informed. At about age 17 or 18 he left home. He traveled around and worked on ranches or wherever he could find a job. Somewhere along the road he met and married Margaret Smith. It ended in divorce. He met Mildred Schulte Koerper in the oil fields of Kansas. They were married in Peabody, Kansas on February 27, 1926. Mildred had 2 small children, Marvin who was 4 and Rosemary who was 2 at the time. Clarence was unable to adopt them because their father had left the state and could not be located. However he raised them as his own.
Together Clarence and Mildred had 4 more children. Ted, Richard, Alice, and Joseph. They traveled from Kansas to Texas where work was available. At one time they lived in Colorado, where he worked as the foreman building the first roads through places like Vale, Aspen and Leadville. Later they went to Idaho where he had a mother and a sister living. He worked on a farm at first and then took over a farm and ran it on shares with the owner. The family lived there 5 years. These were depression years. Work was practically impossible to come by. He would use his carpentry skill whenever possible. He shingled the roof of the doctor's house to pay for his services when his youngest son, Joseph, was born. He also put a new roof on the country school that his children attended.In 1938 he moved his family to Caldwell, Idaho to a bigger farm and a nicer house.. They also took care of the owner of the farm who was in his eighties. This was a pretty good living for the times, and he built up a nice herd of milk cows and 2 teams of horses. When the owner died, Clarence rented a big farm near Star, Idaho. World War II started and changed everything. His oldest son Marvin was in vocational school and left school to do defense work in Bremerton, Wa. In the spring of 1942 Clarence bought a 15-acre berry farm near Lapwai, Idaho. This was something he always wanted and would have stayed there. However, everyone wanted to help in the war effort and so he moved the family to Bremerton, Washington. He got a job in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
Rosemary also got a job there. Ted was only 15 but he got a job for a construction company building housing for the influx of new people who came to work in the war effort.In the spring of 1943 the urge to farm drew him back to Idaho. He built the farm to a prospering truck farm where he grew and sold Strawberries, Raspberries, tomatoes and other vegetables. He also worked at Hanford, WA. at the atomic plant in the off-season. The next year he decided to move further up the Clearwater River to Kamiah. He had another truck farm and also did some logging in the woods. He decided it would be better to live in Washington so the family could be together. He moved once again to Washington, this time to Kingston where he raised vegetables on 15 acres. In the off-season he built houses at South Kingston, overlooking the Puget Sound. He also worked at Port Gamble as a carpenter. Ted came home from the Army and wanted to go to Oregon and be a rancher. So off they go to Oregon. They settled on a 40 acre farm at Tumalo, Oregon.. For lack of equipment they did very little farming. After a year and a half of Oregon life ,he again picked up and moved back to Idaho, this time to Hope, Idaho. Hope was a beautiful place but after a year he moved back to Bremerton where the work was. He and Ted and Dick all went to work for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. He worked there until his death on July 11, l954. He died of a heart attack at his home in Belfair, Washington with his wife at his side. He was a good man who always gave 100% on the job. His friends' nicknamed him "Happy" because of his hearty laugh and because he whistled while he worked.