From farm to school, Elizabeth Wallner Tunks Ingersoll leads a full life in Plainfield

Elizabeth Wallner Tunks Ingersoll was born on a farm in central Plainfield, Wisconsin. She was the third child, with two older brothers and five younger sisters. She sat down to share the story of her life in Plainfield:

We were always on the farm, carrying in wood for the wood stove, carrying water for cooking, peeling a quart bucket of potatoes, and always having an endless number of dishes.
We had plenty to eat, from fresh produce from the huge garden. We canned produce from the garden, and made jams and jelly.
Dairy products were very abundant. My dad had a herd of Milk cows, and we sold milk in bottles to customers in the Village of Plainfield, which was delivered every morning. The rest went to the creamery in the village. We purchased butter and cheese as part of our earnings from the creamery.
Mother traded eggs at one of the grocery stores for basic grocery needs. During the summer, we had ice delivered for the icebox in a room we called the summer kitchen.

We played baseball and, in the winter, we went sledding, skiing, and tobogganing on the hill.
When we came in from the cold, Mom would have popcorn and a pan of fudge.
We walked to school for ¾ of a mile, and sometimes a neighbor gave us a ride in his sleigh.
Mother often helped us with homework. We played board games, checkers, and dominoes.
Electricity came in the mid-1940s, and it was welcomed as it changed our lives. Also, plumbing was completed in the 1940s. We had a bathroom with one tub. Hot water had to be carried to the tub. There was only cold-water plumbing. In the winter, bathing happened in the kitchen or dining room in a round wash tub. The youngest was first, and the others waited their turn. Mother often used the bathwater to clean the kitchen and dining room floors after everyone went to bed.
We had a battery-operated radio, so listening was very limited. Music came from the Victrola record player, which demanded frequent winding, but not too tightly. We also had a piano, and I took 25 cents a week.
Church attendance and Sunday school were valuable to our lives. We walked to church, and when the roads were muddy, we took an extra pair of shoes, then changed them when we came to the sidewalk and hid the muddy shoes under a bush.
Many thanks and credit are due to our parents.
We were in 4-H, and we learned skills such as sewing, cooking, preserving food, gardening and preserving food. My brothers had calves and pigs, which they showed at the county fair. The fair was the highlight of the summer, and school would be starting soon.
When WW11 broke out, there were food stamps. Rationed Gas, Food, Tires, and Sugar.
I went to Stevens Point University for my teaching degree, and I started teaching at Hancock in1948. Then five years between Almond and Bancroft. I taught second grade.
I taught one semester at Prairie School in rural Portage County.
At Plainfield, I taught fifth and sixth grades.
First and second grade had a show on Halloween, and we had major Christmas programs with the band director writing music for the programs, and the kids dressed up as animals. And we all enjoyed the kids and the special programs.
Some of my teaching friends are Dave Troxel, who taught for 36 years in Tri-County, and Mary Troxel, who taught for 41 years in Wild Rose.
I have seen many changes in today’s schools, from how students dress to the respect and character shown towards teachers.
When I retired, it was a good feeling, but then I went right back to subbing for 22 years.
During this time, I also wrote a small story about a mouse in the house.

A mouse in Grandma’s house.
“I’m a small gray mouse, and I live in a really, really big house. I think I’m the only mouse in the house, but there may be more. Someplace I haven’t looked.

I usually stay upstairs room, which I’m told was used. To dry corn in the winter It really smells kind of like grain. There are a lot of books up there too.
This home is so unique, there are two stairways on the front and one in the back.
When it’s quiet, I can go up the backstairs and down the front stairs, and if I want to go again, I can do it the other way around, up the front and down the backstairs.
I really would like to find another mouse, so we could raise lots of little mice. There are plenty of rooms in this huge house for several mice to find places to hide.
There are four bedrooms upstairs and two more downstairs. There’s a parlor , a living room ,a sewing room , a kitchen, a dining room, and two more bedrooms downstairs.
Each day is an adventure to check out these many rooms and to check to see the activities going on.
This grandma here is very nice ,but don’t want to scare her. So I stay out of the way . Oh, I forgot there’s a neat pantry in the kitchen, which is a handy place to hide. It’s rather dark in there, and it’s a great hiding place if I’m downstairs.
I spend most of my days upstairs in this huge room . Not many people come up here , and I feel very much more at home.”

On Oct 29, 2025, the community surprised Elizabeth on her 97th birthday at Starks and Luce Coffee and Bakeshop in Plainfield. Many people were there to celebrate her. Even talked to one of her students on the phone, who now lives in Texas, Kim Vroman Pence.
Elizabeth has touched the lives of the community and her students, leaving a lasting impact on the Plainfield area.