Now let’s go back to the beginning. My Grandfather Henry Lynn Tatro, was born on August 4^th, 1886 at the farmstead of his Grandfather, Moses Tatro, in Medford Township, Walsh County, Dakota Territoy in the United States. On that same day he lost his twin. They had come early and were barely 3 lbs. “No effort was spared to try to keep a spark of life in the other little fellow, judged to be less than three pounds. He was carried delicately on a pillow and incubated on the oven door” (This and quotes to follow come from a document Dad (Harry) produced years ago called THE TATROS OF NORTH AMERICA. Copies of this document were given to all of Dad’s children and siblings*.)

Lynn’s parents, Thad and Adelia Tatro, lost several babys and Lynn ended with only one sister, Grace Mae, born September 3rd, 1893, in Marshall County, Minnesota. There, Lynn and Grace “attended the country school near Radium and, no doubt, received much help from their mother who with grim determination saw that their father, too, would learn to read and write English. Lynn was intelligent and received a better education foundation than had been experienced by his French-Canadian forefathers over many generations. He had a good singing voice, learned to do a twilting whistle and could play most popular songs by ear on mandolin, banjo or violin. When Lynn was age thirteen, in 1900, the family moved to Crookston where he continued his education. His first paying job was entertaining at silent movies with his gift of music.” One thing Dad told us kids about our Grandfather, Lynn, was that he played the mandolin for them and that he had sung and played the accompaniment at silent movies.

“Lynn remained at home finishing his education, working at odd jobs, pitching a good game of baseball and having the pleasures of youth, while living at home until age twenty-one. In 1908 he met and on January 27^th, 1908 married Edith Gilcrist. On September 30, 1908 their son Lavern Lynn was born. Over the next four years Lynn and Edith moved and were separated while Lynn looked for work several times and both suffered from bad health. Sadly, in September 1912 Edith died In San Pedro, California and Lynn took four year old Vern back to Crookston to stay with his parents.”

“Being at loose ends in the fall of 1913, Lynn went to Radium to help his cousin Moses Henry Tatro with the harvest. The Moses Tatro farm was in Meadow Lawn School District, Comstock Township, Marshall County, Minnesota. The school was about three quarters of a mile north of the Tatro farm. Boarding with the Moses Taro family was the country school teacher, Grace Elizabeth Attix.”

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*If you are interested, there is much more information about his early life and about Edith in the “The Tatros of North America” that Dad produced and gave copies to each of his children and siblings.