Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Anna Schneider Schuett (1903-1980) and Margaret Schneider Schoenbeck (1904-1992) oral history

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Track 1, Transcript p. 1-4: Track 1, Transcript p. 1-4
Transcription: Track 1 BM: This is July 19 [1976] and I am interviewing Mrs. Schuett and Mrs. Schoenbeck -SC H O E N B E C K. Now, Mrs. Schuett, would you please tell me your maiden name and where you grew up? AS: Anna Schneider Schuett. Right. BM: And you grew up at 3100.... AS: 3100 Old Glenview Road. BM: And at that time, that was old Gross Point. AS: Yes, it was. BM: And Mrs. Schoenbeck, where did you grow up? In the same place? MS: About a block from here - 3127. Want me to give you my.... SM: Yes, please. MS: Margaret Schneider Schoenbeck, 3127 Old Glenview Road, Gross Point. BM: And that's Gross Point. Fine. Now, you're a cousin of Mrs. Schuett's. MS: Um hum. BM: Right. And you grew up fairly close to each other so.... AS: Always we went to school together. MS: Our fathers were brothers. BM: Oh, your fathers were brothers? Um hum. Okay. And you went to school together. What was -- where did you go to school? p.2 AS: St. Joe's. St. Joe's. BM: You did? AS: Walked all the way from here all the way to St. Joe's every morning. BM': Oh. Um hum. And what was it like? What was St. Joe's like? Was it -- it wasn't a very large building at the time, was it? AS: No, it was small. MS: It was a small building when we started. It was an old - a little old schoolhouse. Right? BM: Oh, did they build another school? AS: Yes. It was a little corner, wasn't it? MS: Yes. Um hum. AS: And this one she's talking about is really the real old building. MS: We started there - it was like first and second grade. BM: Um hum. That is where St. Joe's is now -- on that corner? MS: Um hum. BM: That was where the original schoolhouse was? MS: Um hum. BM: And who were the teachers there? Do you remember? AS: Do you remember? MS: Do you remember Sister Judith? AS: Yes. She was one. Sister Urseline was the first grade. Sister Alisetta was the second. BM: How do you spell - well, all right. p.3 AS: Ursela -- Urseline? I don't know. MS: U R S A L I N E. She was the school teacher AS: Yes. She was nice. And I don't remember -- I remember Sister Loretta and Sister Modesta and Sister Beatina. I remember her real well. MS: Yes. She was a very nice sister. There goes that clock. (Cuckoo clock in background) BM: Yes. Well, that's going to be on the tape, too. (Laughter) MS: Well, that's all right. BM: Now, do you remember Father Netstraeter? AS: Oh, yes. Netstraeter. BM: Netstraeter. Yes, I'm sorry. AS: Yes. I remember him real well. Don't you, Margaret? MS: We lived here with him for so many years. BM: Did he live right in the area, too? AS: No. BM: No? AS: No. He lived right across the street from St. Joe's school. There's where he lived -- what's called Wilmette Avenue now, isn't it? MS: No, Lake Avenue. AS: Where Monseigneur Meter is now today, but those buildings were. all torn down, weren't they? MS: They were torn down in 1935. AS: I wouldn't know that, Margaret. Really? MS: Yes, because when my Dad was buried, he was still buried p.4 from the school where they had the chapel and a new church was being built. AS: You remember better than I do on that. MS: It was around 1935 or '36. BM': Mrs. Schoenbeck, would you please tell me what your parents' names were and where they lived? MS: They were Joseph and Anna Schneider and they lived at 3127 Glenview Road in an old homestead which is 102 years old now. BM: Oh, great. MS: And they did farming. BM: How big was the farm? Do you know? MS: Oh, about 30 acres, I think which was some rented from his brothers and sisters. And they raised corn and tomatoes, and the smaller vegetables, you know, like carrots, beets, melons and beans. BM: Oh, my goodness. Was this to be sold or did you.... MS: We had a stand. Yes. BM: Oh, you did? MS: Yes, along the road side in later years when my brothers were able to take care of it. BM: Um hum.
Creators: Schuett, Anna Schneider, 1903-1980, Interviewee; Schoenbeck, Margaret Schneider, 1904-1992
, Interviewee; Maselli, Briggs
, Interviewer; Schuett, Anna Schneider, 1903-1980
, Interviewee
Media Type: Audio; Image; Text
Item Type: Audiocassettes
Description: Interview with cousins, Anna Schneider Schuett and Margaret Schneider Schoenbeck by Briggs Maselli on July 19, 1976 in Wilmette, Illinois.

ABSTRACT:

Grew up on farms in Grosse Point — fathers were brothers Schooling at St.
Joseph in original school building - present building is the third building on the
corner (NE) Ridge Rd. and Lake Ave. — names of early Sisters — Sister Judith,
Sister Urseline, Sister Alisetta, Sister Loretta, Sister Modesta, Sister Beatina
Original Schneider farm on Old Glenview Rd. was divided among ten children -
eight boys and two daughters of Joseph and Katherine Schneider
Corpus Christi Day - celebration with baskets of flowers strewn along parade
route (a German custom) by the whole parish - discontinued later because
automobile traffic became too heavy — May of each year after last mass on a
Sunday
Roller skating to school - long days with mass at 7:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. - all
classes taught in German — took lunch from home as it was an hours walk to St.
Joseph from 3100 Old. Glenview Rd. — if lunch forgotten, child was sent over to
kitchen at the convent and the “cook” sister would make them a sandwich —
picked apples that hung over a fence and ate on way to school - all subjects
taught in German for first two grades - from third grade only English was taught
— at home. German was used - transition was difficult - classes were 50—55
children per class — discipline strict
Pastured everyone’s cows near Lockerbie Lane before leaving for school and
upon return in late afternoon had to drive them back home
Truck farmed — had to drive produce from farm to South Water Street market on
Chicago River in Chicago - left 9:30 p.m. to arrive there before 4 a.m. — returned
home by 11:30 a.m. - produce was:. corn, tomatoes in boxes made at Morton
Grove (box factory) , carrots, beets, beans, celery
Kept cows to give milk — produced own butter and cottage cheese — chickens
produced eggs - bought sugar and salt but little else
Great grandfather Joseph Schneider had a brick bake oven in back. yard where
bread and coffee cakes were baked
Sundays went to church twice — mass in a.m. — dinner at 12 noon — vespers in
afternoon — walked from 3100 to church and back twice — weekdays began
with breakfast at 6 a.m. -plow the fields — 9:00 a.m. a little lunch - 12:00 noon
dinner - 3:00 p.m. lunch — 6:00 p.m. supper
Winter storage of vegetables in cellar and in heaps of sand and manure in yard
Livestock consisted of a team of horses, cows and pigs — butchered and made
pork—cured sausages and hams and bacon in “smokehouse” — traded at
Bleser’s and Hoffman’s — ice—boxes and ice man but in earlier years stored
milk and butter in the deep well — cellar (dirt floor) stored root vegetables -
canning from large orchard of apple, pear, cherry and peach trees with grape
vines and currant bushes
Flooded fields — barn burned, horses killed — purchased a new team of horses -
father did landscaping for Mallinckrodt and Bahai Temple and “teaming” for
Doetsch Brothers - mother a Doetsch — Mother and Anna did the farming with a
single temperamental horse — winter father worked for Cook County with his
team
Picnics at Goldbar’s Grove - July 4th, Labor Day, Old Settlers and Schneider
Family Picnic in pasture - Schneider Band played for all events.. — six of the
eight brothers were in the original band - Masked Ball - Village Hall - Grosse
Point - post office at Bleser’s store — mail picked up there
Move to “Grandfather’s house” — four unheated bedrooms — out hoUse - well
water until the 1930’s - washing in winter in shed in yard — home-made soap —
lye and lard
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: 19 July 1976
Subject(s): Oral histories
Gross Point (Ill.) — History
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents
Personal Name(s): Schoenbeck, Margaret Schneider ; Schuett, Anna Schneider
Local identifier: R 977.31 Sch
Language of Item: English
Copyright Statement: Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date: 1976
Copyright Holder: Wilmette Public Library
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Wilmette, IL 60091
U.S.A.
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