“When the house was finished I rented it for $36 a month, so as to make better payments, and it did not take long before the house was paid for and was mine.
“The foundation is 36x44 feet; there are seven large rooms on the first floor, four closets, a linen closet, bath, large front and back porches, a half basement with hot-air furnace, laundry with stationary tubs, storeroom, coal bin with air-tight chute. The attic is finished and the walls of the house are built strong enough to add another story if desired.
“Owning a home not only proved a good investment but gave me real satisfaction. I was highly respected and well esteemed by my neighbors and people in general.
“My experience may show that any man or woman can own a home, even with a small income, with a little saving and a plan.”
PLAN No. 700. RECEIVED $100 PER MONTH FOR 40 YEARS
An income of $100 a month is not out of the ordinary, but when that income has been steady and all saved for forty years, it means a great deal.
He was a farmer, and never had the opportunity of a high school or college, but in spite of this handicap he made a success.
He stayed with his father until he was 23, at which time he decided to go in for himself. So he took up a homestead in Minnesota. The first year he put up his shack, 12x16 feet, and broke forty acres of land. His brother took up an adjoining farm.
It was discouraging in those days, he said. It was a long way from the railroad and people. One ox, an old cow and a plow were all they had to work with, all other farm implements they made themselves. Wheat and oats were the crops, and 25 bushels per acre was the first yield, and 70 cents was the price they received. The first year they saved about $300. The second year they broke and planted forty more acres and saved $800.
In ten years’ time the railroad was built, the farm was all under cultivation and a saving of $6,000 was made. Then along came a man with $12,000 and paid this amount for the farm. With the $6,000 he had saved, he now was worth $18,000.