Bio: Geisler, Ervin
Contact:  Stan
Email:  stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames GEISLER SOELLAR

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner 10/21/1965

Geisler, Ervin

"If someone had shot me, I wouldn’t have been more surprise." That was how Ervin and Dorothy felt when Stingy Baird called and told them they had been appointed as managers of the Clark County Old Folks Home in Greenwood, Clark County, Wis. Ervin and Dorothy had lived about a block from the home, and had watched the whole construction project, never dreaming that they would work there. They put in their applications together with 61 other people, in the fall of 1954, and theirs was accepted.

The home was empty when they came there, but two clients came the first day. Since that time, 142 people of the Golden age have come and most of them have gone. The home has 23 beds and each person there looks on his room as his home. In fact, say Ervin, the home is like a street with a lot of homes on it. Some folks wonder if it wouldn’t be possible to squeeze some of them together to get a little more room. So Ervin explains that if you do this, it would be like forcing someone out of his own home.

More than that, there is a kind of family feeling at the home. For example, when someone comes to visit one of the patients, the others tell about it this way: "We had company today." There is a retired couple in Marshfield who have the hobby of visiting rest homes in the area. Ervin tell that this is something which gets into a person’s blood stream, and it becomes much more that just a job.

Ervin and Dorothy are on call 24 hours per day, seven days a week. There is never any time that the can call "free time", although they manage to get a few days vacation each year. It is quite difficult to get steady help, and he understands that this is because people are only human, and the work is often difficult.

Ervin grew up in the Braun Settlement, and farmed for awhile there. He worked as a cheese-maker for awhile, then seven years with the REA. Then they had to lay off a number of men, and Ervin happened to be one of them. He worked for the city for awhile, until someone suggested he apply for work at the Home.

Dorothy came from Thorp, her maiden name was Soellar. They were married 18 years ago, a couple of years before they came to Greenwood. Their son, Arden, is a junior in high school. He has virtually grown up in the Old Folks’ Home, and the patients enjoy him. He plays cards with them, and visits with them, and is practically one of their family. In fact, Dorothy pointed out that she and her husband feel like a son and daughter to the people, more than anything else. Some of the old folks came from Europe, and some of the men were in the logging work during the early days. Most of them have interesting stories to tell. Most of them are real fine old people.

I asked what it does to them, knowing that these people will probably depart from this life during their stay there. Dorothy said that they become as attached to them as members of their own family and that they feel a personal loss at the passing of each. They visit them in the hospital, buy their clothes, and in time of death even make the funeral arrangements many times. They attend each funeral and buy flowers for them.

Why do they do it? "Because it is more than a job. It is the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile, of helping someone who needs help. That is all a person really has time to think about here. There are so many people who help us here, too. I don’t know what we would do without Dr. Olson, for example, "He is always on call here. The neighbors around here help us, and the patients themselves are helpful. We have lots of people to thank."

There is one man there who came the first year, Peder Larsen, who came from Longwood.

And I think the community owes thanks to Ervin and Dorothy for filling a very crucial spot, making a home for someone who might not otherwise have a place to experience appreciation and kindness in the evening years of life.