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 9, Transcript p. 30-33: Track 9, Transcript p. 30-33
Transcription: Track 9 BM: All right, do you want to start again about the flood and the farm? AS: Yes. We were all flooded out and we had to plant it the second time. So then in the meantime, that same year, we lost our barn and our team of horses. It all went -- everything and daddy and mother were working in back of the barn. That was on the 4th of July and they went in that barn, just a couple of minutes before. And I think it was combustion of the hay that was on top - that was a little green or something. SM: Yes. AS: And that whole thing went in flames before anything - anyone could help. And there was no water anywhere. And at that time the farmers all got together and they all came running the minute they saw there were flames, and they got the water out of what we called our cistern. SM: Yes. AS: The cistern comes from the rain water from the roofs.... p.31 BM: Yes. AS: ....that goes in and they pumped the well dry and that's about all. MS: And then they came over to our place and carried the water from our place in buckets and pails. AS: You never saw neighbors work so hard. Didn't they? MS: Well, they tried to save the shed which was right next to it. AS: They saved it. BM: Oh, they saved it? AS: They saved the shed, but the horses were gone. And I'll never forget that because they claim horses don't come out of the barn. They came as far as the door, and they went right back, and they both died right in the stable. BM: Oh. AS: ...were they - you can't get them out unless you blindfold them. BM: Oh. AS: So that is what happened there. Then that year - that was a rough year because we drowned and lost our team of horses. BM: Um hum. AS: So Daddy went out and bought a beautiful team and he was teaming with these horses. Now Daddy did landscaping at Mallinckrodt and at the Bahai Temple with those horses that year. He worked for Doetsch Brothers. That was my mother's brothers. My mother was a Doetsch. p.32 BM: How do you spell that? AS; DOETSCH. BM: Um hum. AS; So he done all that that year which helped us come along pretty good because he went out to work. And he bought us an old cripple -- between me and Mother. I'll never forget - I called your daddy one time. I called it a cripple and it was a single horse. So we had to plant everything over. Mother and I did as much as we could and we did our own farming as Daddy went out teaming. So this horse - it would always get up on its hind legs, stand up and come down. Put its front legs right down on you. And one day - I'll never forget it. I was - we'd picked a bunch of tomatoes and when he thought there was a load in back of him, he'd stand like this and look. He wouldn't pull. This is the truth. He'd get up on his back haunches, you might say, his back legs, and his front ones would come out at you. You'd never dare touch him by the bridle because he would kill you. So one day we had a big load and we called your daddy over. And he wouldn't pull that doggone load. So your daddy came and he got him by the bridle. Well, this, horse raised up and he couldn't make him pull the load. Finally, when he was good and ready, he'd take off. He'd take off like nobodies business. So one day, I was sitting on this single horse wagon, you know - p.33 and here I was, and Daddy just had come home from teaming, and he stood there and he was looking in the back to see what we were doing. He didn't like it so I sat up on the seat and I had a hold of him -- the lines - well, finally he made up his mind. He was going to go and you know what he did? He went into the barn with the wagon and everything. He couldn't get in there, of course, but oh, was that a ride. And Daddy was standing there hollering. That horse would never, never listen. BM: Oh. AS: Took off and halfway into the barn he was. Never forget that. MS: Lucky you didn't get hurt. AS: Those were rough years, believe me. MS: Then, too, in the winter time they would go out and shovel the streets. They'd work for the county, you know. All the men would get together and line up in the streets and shovel all the snow off the streets and over here at Memorial Park so they could get in with their funerals and everything. BM: Oh, I see. Sort of an extra income in the wintertime. MS: Um hum. Oh, yes, that was great if you could work for the county. SM: 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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