Michaels married 68 years — that’s where love comes in

"I wasn’t the most financially fit man in the world to get married," said Frank. "That’s where love comes in."

Frank was born in Newtown in Sullivan County. He went to school there for four years. Then his family moved to Harris County where he graduated from the eighth grade.

"I’ve been educated a lot since I’ve been in school," he said. "We need to get educated every day. If we don’t, we’re in trouble."

Frank was born into a large family of 13. He was the baby of the family and is the only one still living. Two of the children died young. One died at birth. His brother Floyd died when he was 16 of a mastoid infection.

Frank graduated in 1935, during the Depression. The family lived on a farm by a timber and they hunted squirrels and rabbits in season. They had hogs to butcher. When he got out of school, Frank said he hung his good overalls in the closet and put on his patched overalls.

"It was hard going, but everyone was poor," he said.

Julia was born and raised in Modena where her father had a farm. Julia has one brother who lives in Oklahoma and one sister who has passed away. Julia went to school all 12 years at Princeton. Then she went to college at Maryville for a year for her teaching certificate.

She taught for two years in one-room school houses. One year she taught at Lone Star and the next year she taught at Laughlin, both in the Spickard area.

Julia recalls walking about 1.5 miles to school. A group of children walked with her and one rode along on a Shetland pony. They kept her company.

She quit teaching when Frank went to war.

Frank joined the army in 1945 during WWII. He had two brothers that were already serving. Frank had started basic training when Truman dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"President Truman got a lot of criticism for that," said Frank. "But I’ve always felt Harry Truman set me free right there."

After basic training he went to Fort Riley, then to Italy. His son David was born while he was in Italy. The war was winding down and all men that had children were let go. When Frank got out of the Army David was already nine months old. Their second son, Dick, was born in 1947.

Frank got a job driving a truck to haul milk for Central Farm Products in Trenton. He did that for 1.5 years. The money was good in the summer, but in the winter he had to borrow money to put gas in the truck. He sold the route.

He went to GI school and studied agriculture. Then he started farming. He began with four or five milk cows and one sow. They lived by Spickard for a couple of years. Then they lived in Princeton for a year. Finally they moved to Daviess County, north of Jamesport, two or three miles south of Melbourne.

Frank rented a farm. It wasn’t a very good farm, the cockleburs were knee high. He cut brush for $5 a day to help pay the rent.

Buford Witten (everybody called him ‘Uncle’ Buford Witten) was a pretty big farmer in the area. The elderly gentleman would stop about every day where Frank was working and ask Frank to get in the car with him so they could talk. But Frank wouldn’t stop work to do it. He was paid for cutting brush, not talking.

Then one day Frank got done cutting brush and ‘Uncle’ Buford stopped to talk. Turns out, ‘Uncle’ Buford wanted to rent Frank a 380 acre farm. At first Frank refused because he didn’t have the money. But ‘Uncle’ Buford said, "You’ll work."

Later, he would tell Frank: "I was sure I’d come up over that hill and catch you loafing, and every time you were cutting brush."

‘Uncle’ Buford built a new house for Frank and Julia and their young family. It had a front room, a kitchen, two bedrooms downstairs, and a back porch.

One day Frank turned on the radio and they were talking about a well known farmer who had passed away, and it was ‘Uncle’ Buford.

The land was open for sale. Frank went to Gallatin and got a loan from FHA. He would buy the farm at $100 an acre. Frank’s father was in his 80s by then. He told Frank he’d never be able to pay for it. But his father was wrong.

"That was my stepping stone," Frank said. "I was a young man with two boys and no money and no schooling. Buying the farm was the wisest thing I’ve ever done, even though I was in debt worse than I ever was."

He managed to pay off the farm in 15 years. He had only one really bad year when hail destroyed his crops. He sold some good calves from his registered Herefords at Green City to help meet that year’s payment.

"I had some good crop years during that time," he said. "And I had two boys that worked good for me."

Frank said the four of them were a close knit family. His two boys turned out to be pretty sharp. Both David and Dick spent over 30 years teaching, coaching and in school administration, retiring as school superintendents.

Julia gardened and canned. When the boys were off in college, Julia got on the tractor and was Frank’s farm hand.

In 1954, Frank and Julia became Christians after attending a revival at the Corner Church, also known as Pilot Grove.

It was the turning point in their lives. They went to a church west of where they lived. Then to Edinburg Baptist. Presently they attend First Baptist at Trenton.

Frank hurt his back and had to retire from farming in 1977. They moved to Trenton Lake. They had two acres. A lot of grass for Julia to mow and a small garden for her to keep. They moved to Sunnyview Apartments in 2007.

"We were ordinary people. Didn’t have a lot of money. But we had what we wanted to eat. It’s been a good life."

They have six grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren (one is coming in April).

"They keep shelling them out," Frank said.

Frank and Julia have this advice for young couples: "The hard times are almost always just before the good times start if you can hang in there. If I hadn’t had a job cutting brush I wouldn’t have been able to buy a farm. We had less than $50 and parents that didn’t want us to get married. As the old saying goes, we’ve lived happily ever after."