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 13, Transcript p. 44-47: Track 13, Transcript p. 44-47
Transcription: Track 13 AS: You know what brother Leo did? Every morning, as sure as p.45 it came 5:30, that guy would get up. From upstairs all the way down, no matter how cold it was, how much snow was there, that guy would go barefoot out to the outhouse and back. MS: Oh, my gosh. AS: Really! Barefoot! Right into the snow! Every morning. MS: We had no plumbing then inside. Well, it was great. We didn't get city water till 1930's - around 1930 or so. AS: You had a wonderful well though. Your well was deep. Ours wasn't so -- as deep. MS: Yes because we put in a bathroom in 1921 or '22 and we had enough water to. AS: From the well. BM: Oh, from the well. MS: For the bathroom. AS: That was a deep well. MS: I wish we still had that well now. AS: How deep was that, Margaret? MS: It was a big well. It went way, way down. AS: It was one of the deeper wells around here. MS: It was very good water, of course. Then -- and we had a cistern besides which we had used for the laundry. And the well water was so hard. BM: Did you do your laundry once a week? Was there a wash day when you did all your wash? MS: Yes. We had a regular washroom, next to the oven -- the p.47 BM: Yes. AS: She made it out of lard and lye, I remember, and used to stir it in the basement and then cut it in chunks and that was white. That was the kind of soap we had lots of. BM; Well, you must have had a lot of stoves around if you had a stove in the basement to make the. MS: No, we didn't. It was cold down there. BM: Well, you said she made it in the basement. AS: Yes, she did. BM: Oh. AS: The basement, I don't think, got as cold as the outside. MS: We had a stove in the basement, didn't you? BM: How did she make the soap?
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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