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 12, Transcript p. 41-44: Track 12, Transcript p. 41-44
Transcription: Track 12 AS: I was four years old when we moved into this house. My p.42 grandmother and grandfather were building their home on Washington Street. AS: It still is there. MS: Yes. BM: Do you remember what the number is there now? MS: Thalmann lives there now. I can't remember the number. BM: Oh, all right. MS: 1900 - something. And when that building was finished and my grandmother and grandfather moved there and -- because they didn't farm anymore. My father took over the farm. BM: Um hum. I see. MS: So when we moved in there, there were five children and we didn't need such a big place, but after they moved out -- so we took over the house. It had four bedrooms upstairs and a big -- a living room, a big dining room, a bedroom, and a great big kitchen downstairs. BM: Um hum. MS: And at that time, we had no city water so we had our own well and we had a pump on it, and in the winter time if it was very cold, the pump would freeze up and we had to wait to thaw it out so we could get water again. And the kitchen had a white floor, you know. It was not linoleum or anything in the kitchen. We had to scrub it four times a week. BM: Yes, a white floor in the kitchen. p.43 MS: Yes. And the dining room was the same way. Later on we put a linoleum and rugs in there and -- let's see.... AS: And how many bedrooms did you have upstairs? MS: Four. BM Oh, four bedrooms. Yes. And you must have - how did you heat it? MS: We heated it with a heating stove. What do you call those? AS: Old cook stove and a big pot bellied stove.... BM: Oh. AS: .. . .at that time. MS; The cook stove was in the kitchen. BM: Yes. AS: That's how you baked and cooked? MS: Yes. We had to go out at night and bring our kindling and coal in that we were going to use during the day. BM: Um hum. MS: And, of course, the fire would go out at night because it needed to be stoked up. BM: Um hum. Yes. So the first one up in the morning got to start the fire up again and it was a little chilly. AS: And we'd shake a little ice off the quilts in the morning. MS: Yes. Our upstairs was not heated. AS: No. MS: We'd go to bed - run through the hail into the bedrooms because it was cold and we didn't get warmed up until we got the bed warmed up. p. 44 AS: You know how I used to warm the bed? I'd take an old iron - we used to put the irons on the back of the stove - and wrap the irons up and put them next to our feet in the bed. BM: Yes. AS: That's the way we kept warm feet. And we'd breathe over the blankets and the next morning it was all frosty. BM: Oh. AS: . . . .over the whole works. BM: The whole works. Yes. MS: So in the morning, you'd put one foot out and you'd wonder - should I get out into the cold or shouldn't I? (Laughter) And you'd get downstairs and scoot behind the stove. BM: Oh - well, it was warmer there behind the stove. Well, then you had to go out to the outhouse? MS: And how. BM: Ah, then you ran - (Laughter) MS: Lots of time we had to crawl through high snow or shovel our way out there. I have a picture at home where my Dad is standing in the pathway and the snow is as high as the shed. BM: Oh. MS: And you could hardly see the barn for all the snow they had. Of course, the land was all level. There were no buildings or anything and the snow would blow from every direction.
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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