George was born June 6, 1926 at home in Amidon North Dakota on the family homestead that was in Slope County. He was the second from the oldest, I will give the names of his sisters and brothers: Eva, Genevieve, Daniel, Irene, Caroline, Rosella, Gladys. Stanley, Margie, and Dorothy. They lived in a three room rock house, it was the Homestead of his Grandpa’s’, this was one solid old house!
George spent most of his growing up years in the prairie of windy North Dakota.
George's home was a small homestead prairie home in Slope county, their house was built from stones, it had three rooms. Trees and lumber was very scares in the open harsh prairie, personally I think it was one of the harshest places to live!!!! Cold cold winters, and stormy summers., with severe wind and hailstorms.
I remember mother Koffler would watch the storms build up and she would remark when a bad one was coming. Scary to say the least!!!! During the cold winter months they would heat up the flat irons on the stove, then put the irons on the floor of the buggy put their little feet on the irons keeping them warm so they would not suffer from frost bite. The school was about two and half miles from their home.
George says he remembers going to school with a horse and buggy, during the winter months it would be really cold many time the temperature would be below zero. Mother would heat up the flat irons on the stove wrap them in a towel then they would put them under our feet. The school was about 2 and half miles, it took about 30 or forty minutes if they walked to school. Sometimes the teacher would pick them up. Connors school was just a one room schoolhouse, with about 20 students, they were just like one big family.
When weather was nice we played baseball, and tag was another favorite game, during our recesses. He always called it that he went to a high school, because the school was on a hill. Farm schools were from the first through the 8th grade. After the eighth grade they would have to go to the city of Bowman and board there and just come home for weekends. George wasn’t one that was privileged to go to high school he had to help his Dad do the farming. As yet farmers were not using tractors, horses was the main mode of power source. Uncle Adam passed away then they farmed rented the land from his wife, they farmed those acres for many years, the two farms together were in total about 300 acres. At the time the Kofflers were able to use Aunt Francis' tractor, on both places.
When George was about fifteen, he was farming at his aunts farm until dark. The way home they had a electrical storm, meaning lightning flashing many different directions. The tractor he was driving had Iron wheels, a good way to get struck by lightning. He was scared and prayed all the way home, when he got home, he shut the tractor off ran quickly into the house.
He really feels the Lord protected him!
God has protected him many times. Sometimes we think it just happened that way but I know it is Gods protecting hand. I can remember the time our house was broken in and George was sleeping, He left early from church and we stayed for the potluck. He had to go to work on grave yard shift meaning 11pm to 7am. While he was sleeping we had a break in, they broke the window in back in kicked in the door, our dog was barking but George slept through it all, they took and number articles. The thief went into Dad’s bedroom and saw his billfold on the window sill and was going to go in and grab it, at that time George stirred in his bed so he decided to book it. They caught the thieves they were on motorcycles and had broken into many houses that day. We came home about 4:00 pm the front door was open and we went to the back door the window was broken and the door was also open, and it was very quiet, that is one time I screamed thinking what happened to George, we ran to the bedroom there he was sleeping soundly not a concern in the world of course in our process of coming home his sleep was interrupted !!
I also remember when he and another man were cutting the fencing along the road because of highway 92 being widened, Public utility men were taking a tree down at on our side of the road with a cherry picker, any way one of those things the power line crew use. All of a sudden the power line broke and I knew George the other man were right underneath the wires. I scream knowing they were in the wrong spot at the time. They just happened to look and see the tree top coming down they both ran across the road to Grim’s place. Thank God they had looked up. There many other1 such times we can praise the Lord for his protection.
He also talks about the time he was riding with his Dad on the tractor and rake, he fell, and landed under the rake. His dad was one frightened father he just suffered scratch and bruises. Some time I think the Lord sends many special angels over the lives of little boys.
He worked out for a lot of farmers during his teen years, some of the farmers were very tight with their wages. Big money was 5 dollars a day, not just a 8 hour day, it was 8 hours plus, even after dark until 10 or eleven o’clock.
When George was growing up at the age of 12 to 15, he did a lot of trapping, the season started in Oct. He would set out about 15 traps. These traps were to catch all kind of varmints such as skunks, weasel, mink Muskrats. He said he tried to catch a badger, but no such luck. The badger outsmarted him. One year he caught about forty skunk, the best price was for the no striped skunk. He skinned every single one of them, all I can say his mother had a lot of love for her son. We love these little boys even if they smell! He said he will never forget the skunk that didn’t’ have an odor, He shot it from a safe distance. “Trapping was one of my favorite things to do” George said.
When George was about eight or nine years old North Dakota was like the dust bowl for many years. He remembers the dust drifting along the fence, like the snow would in the winter. When the wind was blowing you set the table in a short while there would be dust on the dishes.
The dust bowl years brought on the grasshopper, there were so many the grasshopper ate every growing green thing, maybe I should call them locust, there so many one time they darken the sun.
The year of 1947, George rode out with Alvin Olson, Alvin was coming out west to see his true love Fern Knutson. George was going to buy a new truck for his parents just the cab it didn’t have a bed on it. He also met Ethel Makus, Fern’s roommate and decided to take her on a date, as of yet he didn’t have the truck. The next best thing to do we caught city transit to Green Lake, we had a long walk around green lake, so we had plenty time to talk. We also double dated with Fern and Alvin. This was the beginning of a long relationship, in fact it led to a long, long, time together.
We were married December 10th 1949, We had a long month honeymoon to say the least. Washington had the coldest winter that I can remember in my life time that is a pretty long time. That is the year Lake Stevens froze over.
He was landscaping at the time; the weather didn’t warm up until Feb. He worked at that job until fall. Then we decided to move to Everett.
When you looked for work during those times, you couldn’t fill out application until after a short enter view. The men that wanted employment would stand outside by the gate a hoped and prayed they would pick you. George did this for about a week and then was hired by Weyerhaeuser, pulp div. That time Weyerhaeuser had one pulp and lumber mill years following they built another pulp mill. Everett during the 50's and 60's had seven active mills including lumber. George worked there 3 years. We received a surprise the end of 1980, one morning he went to work, and they were given notice that the mill would be closed in one month. This was great surprise and changed the direction of our lives, we did not get much of a severance pay, I believe it was one month’s wages.
We finally took a job with Nordstrom family, he was the caretaker and I was the maid and cook, we will chalk that up as quite the experience, very interesting to say the least.
Then he worked at community chapel for several years, in the process of time we moved back to our place in Lake Steven. The next few years he worked at various jobs; I remember when he was working for Harold Watson. Hal was on the backhoe Georges was laying the pipe, all of a sudden they had a cave in Harold was one frightened man! The dirt stopped passed his knees. George said, “No way could you pull yourself out of the mud. It was a strange feeling how compacted it felt."