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‘Lots Of Laughs’

Nonagenarian Siblings Recall Their Nine Decades

Donald Archer and his father, Anson Archer, stand in front of the family business located at Routes 241 and 62 in the Town of Conewango. Submitted photo

When John Archer and his sister Virginia Johnson, sit together discussing lifetime memories, names, dates and locations come out of their mouths like they were talking about last week. Amazingly, the sibling team was born in the 1920s with John now being 90 and his sister 92-years old.

Dr. Snover delivered both babies at their parents Conewango home. Five doors from their house was their father, Donald Archer’s store on the corner of Routes 241 and 62. It could be said it was an early version of today’s one-stop shopping store, consisting of a feed mill, hardware, grocery store and post office all under one roof with Kendall gasoline sold from a lone pump in the front. Their grandmother lived in the same large structure, which had been a stagecoach stop in earlier years.

Virginia remembers skating in her father’s store and having once been an inn, it had an upstairs ballroom, which was ideal for the activity. Occasionally, they were able to take their parents’ Victrola outdoors so they could crank it and listen to music while skating on the sidewalk. They played many outdoor games such as Annie, Annie Over over the woodshed. There were no lifeguards at the swimming hole at Clear Creek, when they frequented it on hot summer days. In the winter, a farmer at the end of Seager Hill Road allowed the kids to skate on his frozen pond. Another farm on the road held the annual Conewango Town Picnic where a speaker spoke to the group, competitive games were played and a baseball game was held against a team from a neighboring town.

Both children, their eldest sister, Barbara, and the youngest sister, Clella, went to Conewango District #1, a two-room schoolhouse that had four grades in each room and was located next door to their home. The Archer Kids envied those that brought their lunches to school as they could eat quickly, then go outdoors to play. The siblings had to go home for lunch and lost precious time that could have been used to play.

After they had gone through the eight grades offered at the little school, they rode a bus driven by Carey Jenks to Randolph High School, where Johnson graduated in 1944 and her brother in 1947. Archer was in his senior class play and was on the school’s basketball and baseball teams, which were the only sports offered, and hitch-hiked home from practices.

Virginia Johnson, 92, and her brother John Archer, 90. Photo by Beverly Kehe-Rowland

“I stood on that corner (Main Street and Route 241) many days about five o’clock,” said Archer. “I walked that (seven miles) one time in a pair of loafers.”

When asked about her high school interests Johnson gave a quick, fun response.

“Don’t put this down…boys. Go ahead. Write what you want,” she said while smiling.

She was a cheerleader for the basketball team and was also in her senior class play, which was called “The Girls Take Over.” Overnight stays at her friend, Shirley Williams’ house, whose father owned the meat market, enabled her to take part in the play.

“My cousin and I used to ride our bikes to go to the movie theater,” Archer said. “The main place was Gallagher’s Drug Store after the show on Saturday.”

Johnson liked the Mexican sundaes at the drug store. She mentioned Sammy’s Diner as another frequented stop after coming from the Randolph theater.

“In Conewango we had a grange hall where they played basketball. There was a stage. That was my stage debut when I was four-years old,” she laughed.

Archer told about his memory of the day an Amish man, he believed the first in the area, arrived in a car looking to buy land.

“His name was Noah Shetler and he was dressed in black. It was about 1949 or 1950.” said Archer.

There were two churches in Conewango and everyone would go to one of the them one Sunday, then to the other the next week.

“We hardly knew who belonged to what church,” said Johnson.

On Saturday night, their father started the fire that heated one of the churches and taught a Sunday school class each week.

“And in the morning he drove all over picking up kids to take to church,” said Debra Heuer, Archer’s daughter.

“He wouldn’t let the kids play basketball unless they were in church,” said Johnson.

The siblings fondly reminisced about going to summer camp for three or four years at Camp Findley at Findley Lake. Johnson worked in the kitchen during her last summer at the church camp. Archer met Patricia Bratt, who eventually became his wife, while throwing toilet paper over the roof, as well as inside the camp’s Goodwill Lodge.

“And she (Patricia) didn’t mean anything then. She was to blame,” he said while pointing at his sister.

The women reunited at WCA’s nurse training program and Johnson thought it would be a good idea if her brother contacted the girl during one of his leaves from the Air Force.

“We kind of hit it off,” said the veteran.

In August of 1949, the couple and his father slipped off to Clymer to marry when he was home on leave before being sent to Alaska. The location for their marriage was chosen because nurses were not allowed to marry during training.

“The town clerk allowed me to take the marriage license to my mother to sign and then mail back to him.”

The new bride finished her three-year education and then joined Archer in Alaska. She walked about a half mile to work while living “in the frozen tundra.” A kind Eskimo woman made a parka to keep Heuer warm.

“I saw it under 40 below zero,” said Archer. “We lived in one small room in the barracks with a Murphy bed. When the bed was down, there was no room.”

The aircraft electrician walked a mile to catch the GI bus to Eilson Air Force base. His discharge came a year later, after which they rented an apartment in Greenhurst. He then built a house on Manchester Road in Stillwater while working for three years at Automatic Voting Machine, where he was a machinist training to be a tool and die maker. They then moved to Englewood, Calif. where he worked in his friend’s brother-in-law’s machine shop.

“We drove to California in a little English Ford with our belongings on the roof and in the trunk and my two girls, my wife and a jug of water.”

They returned to Jamestown briefly, but moved back to California. After that, Archer was a manager for Goodyear stores which transferred him many times. Another move to Jamestown was short-lived followed by a move to Albion, where the couple bought a lumber company, which they owned for about 15 years. They retired to Payson, Ariz. where they built a house in the mountains, but again came back home to take care of elderly parents. One more move was made in 2000, this time to Lynchburg, V. They came back to Jamestown again in 2018 and Patricia passed away in February 2019.

“My dad told my mom ‘stick with me and we’ll go places'” said Heuer.

“I once counted and I think they moved about 30 times,” said Johnson. “Our lives were so different. We were in one place.”

Johnson met H.W. (Bill) Johnson, who was from Jamestown, at a friend’s house in Conewango when she was 13-years old. She did not see him for many years until his sister was her patient, after which time she suggested to her brother that he reconnect with the young nurse.

They married Nov.19,1948. Bill had served in the Pacific with the United States Navy during WWII on the USS Astute, a minesweeper. The ship was in the Aleutian Islands when the Russians were brought onboard for training before the U.S. turned the ship over to their country. Bill went to work for the Postal Service, eventually being appointed postmaster. Johnson worked at WCA Hospital for 30 years, with the last several years spent in the operating room, before retiring in 1982.

The family lived in the home Bill built in 1956 near Allen Park. They were members of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church where they were very active and they considered the people of the church their closest friends. They owned a sailboat, went cross-country skiing and did a lot of family outings, including a camping trip to the Adirondacks.

“Bill and I enjoyed ice skating after we retired and skated every Thursday at Allen Park Ice Rink with the Silver Blades,” said Johnson. “We were televised by two Buffalo TV channels when we were skating on our fiftieth anniversary.”

She talked about the fun times they had with her brother and Patricia, who was related to Lucille Ball.

“Pat was our Lucy. She was so funny,” said Johnson.

“She had it in her blood. She had the same expressions as Lucy,” Marta Schnake added in agreement with her mother.

“There were lots of laughs in the family. We went to Grandma’s and the cousins would go upstairs to play,” Heuer said.

“We would go to the old schoolhouse, which became the grange, and the roll-down maps were still hanging there. We used to have our own school,” said Schnake.

The Archers have three children, Rebecca Neilans, Debra Heuer and Tim Archer. Archer resides at Hultquist Place on Falconer Street. Johnson lost her husband August 2017. The couple has a son, Gary Johnson and a daughter, Marta Schnake. All four Archer siblings are still alive. Barbara Brown lives in Olean and Clella Essex in Colorado.

“We moved to Wisconsin in 2000. My husband’s heart was always in Jamestown,” said Johnson. “Allen Park was an incredible neighborhood.”

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