USA > Illinois > Jasper County > Sainte Marie > History of Sainte Marie, Saint Mary's Church and Sainte Marie Township, Precincts 1 and 2, Jasper County, Illinois, celebrating [the quasquicentennial] Sept. 1, 2, 3, 1962 > Part 5
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Upper right photo, Don Spitzer, immediate past commander of American Legion Post 932 in Sainte Marie. and Mrs. Leonora Spannagel, immediate past president of the post's Auxiliary.
Lower left photo, Frank Zuber, left, and H. T. Kirts, trustees of Saint Mary's Church.
Lower right photo, members of the Mother's Helpers 4-HI Chb of 1962.
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Hazel Taylor of Effingham, Ill., was the demonstrator. This attracted visitors to the Parish Hall from as far as 50 miles away.
Each summer, the Jasper County Swine Herd Im- provement Association has part of its field day at the Hartrich Processing Plant to demonstrate different types of hogs.
The Association's lean type pork is world-renowned. Each year Hartrich's Processing Plant purchases some of the Jasper County 4-H clubs' prize-winning beef to pro- cess for that famous Saint Mary's Church Picnic dinner held each Labor Day; together this attracts visitors from hundreds of miles away.
On March 28, 1962, Hartrich Grocery purchased the Ed Rohr Grocery Store in Newton. Here, too, is an out- let for their processed beef and pork. May it continue to flourish !
Fall Butchering
The older generation did not only get together for threshing, wood sawing and silo filling, but the fall butch- ering was an annual affair. At this time several neigh- borhood families got together for this work.
Daylight saw a huge fire under an iron kettle heating water in preparation for the day's work.
By evening there were baskets of link sausages, fine hams and bacon cooling in the smoke house.
The next day was a very busy day for the homemaker too. Liver sausage; blood sausage, the Germans called it, the French blood pudding, head cheese, scrapple and pickled pigs feet to make. The blood sausage was a little like limburger cheese, you had to learn to eat and like it.
Here, too, the people made light work of it all by on extra good dinner witli maybe a jug of cider or wine on the side.
Sometimes the crowd would stay for supper and work late, finishing the day by playing cards and doing a lot of visiting.
More old time happenings: July saw the ripening of wild blackberries. It was customary for folks to pick and can gallons of the berries. With a rich pie crust, plenty of sugar, a bit of fresh churned butter, and no where will you find a finer dessert than fresh berry pie. Apples too were dried for "Schnits" pies in the winter, peaches from the orchard were canned by the baskets. Plums, grapes, watermelons and gooseberries were worked up into jams and jellies. Even the wild plums did not go to waste.
Soap making too was in order. Some of the older grandmothers could make fine white soap from off-falls of the fatty part of the meat. Some scented it with win- tergreen, some with mint or lavender, but all of it could put as fine a white wash on the line as any modern product.
Sainte Marie was also a great place for large fam- ilies. Being a farming community there was so little for the young people to do with the exception of the ones who inherited the land, that many young people had to go out into the world to make their way and of course were lost to the population of their home town.
But they love to come back, especially over Labor Day week-end when the annual church picnic is held.
We must mention two large families in passing. The Joseph and Magdaline Spitzer family came here in 1848 and they had 12 children. The Ochs family, John and
Mary Ann Weiler, had 12 children. Both families number more than 500 members.
Sainte Marie has also been a quite peaceful place to live and grow old in. A number have lived more than 90 years and a great many more than 85. Mrs. Rhode Fore, Civil War nurse, was 102, Joseph Picquet 96, Mrs. Jose- phine Bolander 98, Mrs. Matilda Dunham 96, Mrs. Mary Huber 97, Miss Mary Bolander 94, Theodore Hahn 97, Mrs. Monica Hartrich 94, Jacob Bolander 91, Michael Bolander 93, Theodore Hahn 97, and Victoria Hahn 92. Mrs. Jose- phine Zuber is 90, and Mrs. Louise Reis, a former resident, is 92.
Three Couples Married Over 60 Years
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Menke-60.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Bolander-62. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Foley 65.
Ole Swimming Hole
One of the joys of youths in summer time in Sainte Marie was going swimming in the river. After long hot days in June, July and August the gang of boys in town would hike over to the river.
In later years they would get together in someone's old truck and hie themselves away to the old swimming hole north and east of town. This favorite spot was called "leven foot", meaning it was 11 feet deep.
More than one youngster proved to the gang he wasn't "chicken" or too young to run with the pack by diving off the spring board into "leven foot".
With the new inventions of bath tubs and swimming pools, no more do gangs of youngsters have the joyous fun of swimming in the river in the raw.
Orr Girls
Many people have wondered these many years what ever happened to the two Orr girls, Barbara and Francis, who came with the first pioneering group to Sainte Marie. They were seamstresses and were supposed to do all the sewing for the little colony, even tailoring the men's clothing.
Once they had arrived, no more mention was made of them in the history at any time.
Several years ago, which would make the time 120 years later, I attended a meeting of the Jasper County Garden Club. The roll call was an "Antique Possession."
Mrs. Mildred Jansen of Newton stunned us all when she held up a pair of gold hoop earrings, worn so fine, she wore them on a chain like a necklace. Mrs. Jansen was saying they had been given to her by her grandmother, Mrs. Henry Raef, and she had received them from one of the Orr girls, who had come to the United States of America with the Picquet Colonists.
A hundred and twenty years later, another young woman proudly worn the gold hoop earrings.
Threshing Time
Sainte Marie township being primarily a farming community, threshing time was an extra busy time.
Much wheat and oats were grown here. Before farm- ing was mechanized, horses were used to pull the reaper that cut and bound the grain. It was then put into shocks of 12 to 15 bundles. Horse drawn wagons were used to gather up the shocked bundles and hauled to the home- stead where they were stacked into ricks. There was an
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Four Scenes to Treasure
Top loft, view of a peaceful Embarras River east ward from the bridge in Sainte Marie; top right, steel highway bridge across the Embarras in Sainte Marie; lower left, Sainte Marie Volunteer Fire Department and truck, with Paul Hartrich and Lawrence Huber on the runing board, and Ed Stone, Bernard Huff, Lawrence Hart- rich, Leonard Sheridan, Harold Hartrich, Paul Faltemier, Ronald Kirts, Dick Hunzinger, fire chief, Merece Gowin and Larry Kirts standing in the back; lower right, photo of painting of Joseph Petar Huber homestead-note that what appears to be a flowering bush in left center is a peacock with spread feathers.
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art to this. Few men could make a good looking rick that would stand staunchly, not taking in rain, until the threshing machine was in the neighborhood.
Wheat straw, as well as oat straw, is hard and smooth when ripe and a man had to know just how to stack the bundles to keep the rick from sliding in all directions. Here it was left to sweat or cure for several weeks.
The farmers were usually formed into threshing rings, perhaps 12 to 15 men, then with a few visiting rela- tives they had their crew.
If a farmer had a good threshing of, say 800 or 900 bushels of wheat, and as much of oats, he was supposed to treat the crew to a keg of cold beer.
This was, of course, when the work was all done. Much fun we.it on with all this. There was a lot of good natured teasing and joshing.
The women folk were counted in on all this fun. Each tried to outdo the other in putting the best fried chicken or apple pie on the table.
The men, smarties that they were, bragged on each homemaker's food. That was always good for a second or third helping of chicken and dumplings and his iced tea glass being filled oftener. It was a lot of hard work. The men not only took dinner with you, but many stayed for supper.
. But all of this is now a thing of the past. Combines cut and thresh the grain in one operation, pouring the grain into waiting trucks, and in a matter of minutes, the crop is on its way to the elevators and in a matter of hours into railroad cars and on its way to the city, where it is made into flour.
No more are there bulging granaries, where a man and his family can run their hands through the golden grain which they all had a part in growing.
At the end of a harvest season there is only a check, some times a small one at that, after the cost of lime- stone, phosphate and fertilizer has been taken out, to show for a whole year's work. It would seem much of the old time joy of farming is missing in this modern day and age.
Corn
Corn, too, is an important crop in Sainte Marie Town- ship. The greater part of the land around Sainte Marie is some of those 12,000 acres the founding fathers bought for $1.25 per acre.
Some of this land, especially in the Embarras River bottoms, has increased 200 to 250 times its original price. Of course, the timber has had to be cleared and removed. Levee tax as well as state and local taxes paid for more than 100 years, it needed to raise that much in price.
To farm "new ground", as land was called that still had many of the stumps in it, took the patience of Job. New ground was no place for any kind of farming ma- chinery, except an old style walking plow, and a patient old team. But it paid off once the obstructions were re- moved, for the land is rich river bottom soil. A farmer farming this land right can grow anything that grows out of doors.
Soybeans
Around the turn of the Century, soybeans were little known in this part of the state. Then scientists discov- ered new uses for soybeans and almost immediately they
became a quick cash crop.
Soybeans are planted around corn planting time, per- haps a little later, and by the middle of September beans are ready to be harvested. Long lines of trucks, trailers and wagons patiently wait their turn to unload at Hart- rich's elevators. When railroad cars are unavailable on the I. C. R. R. at Boos, some wait all night to get un- loaded.
Harvesting soybeans is almost a whole family project. Even the women are called on to drive loaded trucks to the elevators while the farmer himself continues to oper- ate the combine.
If left too long in the field, the bean pods tend to dry out, causing the beans to pop out and become lost to the harvest. Soybeans are a good rotation crop when grown on rich river bottom land. They grow a huge bean stalk, while on poorer soil they set on more beans, making them an ideal crop for prairie soil.
Soybeans in Sainte Marie township have helped to build finer homesteads and make life a lot easier and more pleasurable for folks living here.
Pack Peddlers
Another old time feature that our younger genera- uon know nothing about was the pack peddler. The stores that kept fine things were few and far between, and these old Pack Peddlers would carry in their packs, silks, linen and laces, and likes of which country-folks had never seen.
The silk was cut in what they called one dress pattern and never will I ever forget one green and orchid change- able silk one old peddler had. His name was MackIntyre and he usually made his rounds in the spring. Our folks were always glad to see him. He was company from the outside, (meaning cities which we had never seen, only read about).
Hucksters
The dictionary says a huckster is a vender of small articles but the huckster We knew had a lot of things besides small articles. He had a huckster wagon, usually drawn by two good horses. The bed of the wagon was boxed in and made into compartments. Here were kept everything from peppermint stick candy to huge sacks of sugar, beans, coffee, salt and rice. The lower 18 inches of the wagon-box were slatted to hold the poultry which the farm wives traded for supplies. On top of all were several egg cases, where the eggs were kept after they were counted.
It was said that one huckster, who shall be nameless because he has been gathered to his fathers, having im- bibed too much, simply poured the eggs from the basket into the case. "So much easier," he said.
The end gate of the wagon let down and made a sort of shelf and here the huckster did a thriving business in the bolts of calico, muslin and gingham, buttons and thread which he could pull out to show and sell.
Hucksters had regular runs on regular days, and always had a certain place to stop, feed and rest their horses, and get dinner, the meal now called lunch. The home-maker always had an extra good dinner that day, for she always took out 50c worth in trade for it. I re- member as a very small child, there was one who came to the old brick house from Willow Hill. Friday was the
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Girl Bait - 1916 Style
All dressed up in their Sunday best back in 1916 were Eugene Litzelman, left, and George Adams, when both of these well known citizens were single and "available." This classic photo, incidentally, is the property of Charlene Bolander.
Six Views From 1914 Penny Postcard
DEPUTYTRACES CARD.
STORRERS RIVER
892
SAINTE MARIE ILL.
BANK Y POST OFFICE
Top row: Left, the old railroad depot and tracks; center, Saint Mary's Church; right, a view of the Embarras River.
Bottom row: Left, the bank and post office; center, interior view of St. Mary's Church; right, the old creamery. The postcard bearing these classic views was mailed in 1914 for 1c. It is the property of Charlene Bolander.
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day he came and mother always had home-made egg noodles with a sour-cream sauce, home-made bread, fresh churned butter, supplemented with fresh garden vegeta- bles, all topped off with either baked apple dumplings or rough and ready peach pie. How that old bachelor huck- ster did enjoy his noon-time meal; no wonder they called it "dinner".
Hop Vines and Yeast
That home-made bread was made from hop-yeast. Grandfather always kept a few hop poles where the vines climbed in the orchard, alongside a few stands of bees. When the hops were dried, they were picked. Little round fluffy seed balls, they were stored in a sack, hung up in the kitchen until needed . To make the yeast, two cups full were put into a bowl, scalding hot water was poured over it, then the greenish juice was left to cool. It was then mixed with corn meal, rolled out, cut into squares, and put into a warm place to dry. When dry, it was stored in a box. Mother always made a whole winter's supply each fall. It was as much a ritual as making soap and preparing the winter's supply of meat; almost every neighbor who came to call carried off a couple square cakes of yeast wrapped in brown paper, in her pocket.
This yeast made the most fragrant bread. We chil- dren coming home from school in cold weather would slice up a whole loaf still warm from the oven, lather it with fresh churned butter, top it off with currant jelly. Food for the gods, no less!
Young people reading this must wonder "How old is the author of this history anyway to remember these old- time happenings". Well, first I have a good memory, second I'm old enough to be the mother of the "mayor of the town".
So you know I'm not from yesterday.
Fishing and Hunting
The fishing is still good around Sainte Marie, but the hunting has fallen off to a marked degree. Once, almost every man owned a gun and could go out in the hunting season and get a bag of game; prairie chickens, quail, rabbits or squirrels. In our grandparents' days, deer and wild turkey were plentiful. Wild fowl are still with us occasionally as in this story sent The Newton Press in October, 1946:
"We have been having some visitors from the fly- ways these last few days. The Hamilton Marsh northeast of Sainte Marie of perhaps 200 acres, has been flooded by the recent rise of the Embarras River, and thousands of wild geese and ducks have stopped over on their way to the southland, are having a picnic there these last 10 days or so.
"Sitting on the hill and looking out over the Marsh, with its weeds, willows and rushes, and except for the murmur of the feeding wild fowl, you can scarcely believe there are thousands of wild geese and ducks out there, and the water is alive with fishes. The whole south end is taken over by the ducks, pintail, mallards, shovellers and blue wing-tail. The center belongs undisputedly to the snow geese, while the whole north end has been taken over by the black Canadian honkers.
All is quiet. Suddenly, some hoarse voiced old gander sends out a ringing call, and the geese begin to rise. Fifty,
a hundred, five hundred, a thousand, and through the deafening clamor you can hear the high shrill cry of the Brants, the quack, quack, quack of the disturbed ducks, the deeper honk of the Black Canadians and as the sun glints on the shimmering white feathers of the snow geese, they sail majestically out of sight, into some farm- er's corn, wheat or bean field.
Perhaps in an hour they are back, sailing and circling aloft, each time a little lower, until they are reasonably sure it's safe to come down. Then down they come, some with orange feet leading, and with a splash and a few crackles settle on the water, others sliding down, first one wing leading, then the other, as though they are 'slap-happy' to have so much food to eat and water to swim and splash in.
On Nov. 4 the game law opens. With the first firing of the hunter's guns, they will be off, seeking a new refuge, perhaps Reelfoot, or Horseshoe Lake in the south- ern part of our state.
"We hope they live through many hunting seasons and come to visit us again. It's been thrilling having them with us!"
Brick Houses Landmarks
Besides many old frame houses there were in Sainte Marie Township three brick houses that were outstanding, each in its own way.
The first to be built was the Jacques Picquet home in Sainte Maric Village, erected in 1844 and colonial in design. Built by French people, it followed the design of the homesteads in the French quarter of New Orleans. It has now been taken down by the owners, Albert and Harold Hartrich, to the first floor and is being used as a garage and workshop.
The second brick house was that of Joseph Petar Huber. This house was not as old as the Picquet mansion, but never-the-less six generations of the family slept be- neath its roof. This homestead was built on the sand hills east of Sainte Marie, known as the Ridge. At one time, the road from the Bend led straight west from the Rennier Bridge, across the Huber farm. There was talk of building a bridge to cross the Embarras River here, but it was changed and the bridge was built farther south and is now known as the Yager bridge.
This house too is being dismantled by the owner, Frank Keller, a great grandson of the man who built it, and it will soon be but a memory.
Never will the younger generations appreciate what work these old pioneers did to make our country the fine place to live in that it is! At each of these homesteads the clay was hauled in, mixed in a hand-power mixer, moulded into bricks, then burned in a home-made brick kiln. The wood-work, doors, window frames and floors were trees of walnut, white and red oak, cut down on forest land they owned, hauled to a sawmill, seasoned, then planed down to a beautiful finish. How long it took the others to get their bricks burned and other material ready is not known, but the Huber house took three and a half years to make and burn the bricks alone.
Hearth Fire Dies in Old Huber Home After Burning Almost 90 Years
'The story of the second brick house began as long ago and far away as 1823 when in Bavaria, Germany, on
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Scenes From 1891 and 1943
Top photo shows the Sainte Marie school, church and reetory in 1891.
Lower photo shows the Mothers Helpers 4-H Club of 1943. Seated in front are Mary Maginn and Pauline Howard.
Second row kneeling, left to right, are Louise Oehs, Florenee Cunningham, Loretta Kapper, Evelyn Radke; Mary Moran, Rosemary Hartrich and Aliee Cunningham.
Third row, left to right, are Eugenia Kirts, Mrs. Eve- lyn Barthelme, assistant leader, Mary Ann Zuber, Patricia Zuber, Evelyn Maginn, Mrs. Ferdinand Hartrich, leader, Joan Kirts, Cecelia Zuber, Mary Ellen Spannagel and Marcella Menke.
These girls carried projects in cooking, sewing and flower arrangements and won prizes in all at the Jasper County Fair.
With the exception of Mary Ann Zuber, deceased, all the other girls shown are now married and some of them have daughters of their own in 4-H club work.
Three of Today's 4-H Clubs
Top photo, Sainte Marie Chore Boys 4-H Club with Ted Koeher, Lawrence Helregel and Vietor Ochs as leaders.
Middle photo, Cloverleaf 4-H Girls in the Bend, 1962. Bottoni photo, Sainte Marie Helpful Little Hands 4-H Club for 1962, Melba Rose Sheridan and Eufala Bigard leaders.
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the 25th of January, Joseph Petar Huber was born. As he grew to manhood and was drawn into the military training which that country has always maintained to settle its disputes and fight wars, Joseph Petar Huber vowed, "Once I can get out of the country, I will shake the dust of the fatherland from my feet, go to that fine new country called America, across the sea and never return".
He came to America in 1853, stayed for awhile with friends in Philadelphia, Pa., then moved on to Cincinnati, O. There he was married and lived for 10 years. Still feeling the urge to come farther west, he and his wife, Cresence, and their four small sons, Herman, 2, John, 4, Joseph, 6, and George, 8, loaded their few possessions into a covered wagon and started west. Crossing Illinois on a snowy Dec. 7 they came to a little village called Sainte Mary's.
Joseph Petar Huber was a Roman Catholic and had great devotion to the Virgin Mary. To him it was pro- phetic to come into a village named Sainte Mary's on the eve of the Immaculate Conception Feast Dec. 7, so here they would try to locate. The few settlers welcomed them. They were always glad to have new people come in. especially men with families. A man named Fore offered them free use of a cabin in a wooded area above the river on the sand hills east of Sainte Marys' called the "Ridge". They could have it free for the winter if they would stay, so they accepted Mr. Fore's generosity, moved into the cabin, lighted a hearth fire that was to burn brightly for almost 90 years.
The next morning another settler named Shedlebower came over the hill carrying a sack of provisions on his shoulder. True, the sack contained only turnips, potatoes and parsnips, which he had dug from his outdoor pits, but to the little Huber family they were fresh vegetables. Such generosity Joseph Petar Huber never forgot. In all the years he lived, no one ever asked him for help in vain. The motto by which he lived and taught his sons was "Give generously, it will return".
By spring, Mr. Huber had taken stock of his sur- roundings. Here he found great white and red oak tim- ber to build a house, barns and granaries, rich river bot- tom-land to grow corn, rolling hills to grow wheat, wood pastures to fatten cattle and hogs, and never failing springs flowing from out the sand hills. True, trees had to be cut and stumps cleared away before the land could be turned with a plough, but Joseph Petar Huber had great strength and faith, a fine family to work for and a lifetime in which to do the work.
When that little boy of two was four, the cabin was bursting at the seams with so much little-boy energy in- side, so the family decided to build a log house. It was to be a real house, 15 feet wide and 25 feet long, two rooms below and one above, a huge fireplace at one end, and broad walnut stairway leading to the upper room.
Now, they were all set for happiness, but their hap- piness was shortlived for the first winter in the new log house the mother in the home died, leaving the father with four small sons to care for, a living to make and in a country where he hadn't as yet mastered the language. It was a sad time for him, but his great faith and kind neighbors saw him through. When that little boy of 2 was 14, they decided to build a brick house. Some of the neighbors laughed when they heard Mr. Huber and his boys planned to make and burn the bricks themselves, but
they did make them, digging the clay from the river bank, mixing it in a hand-powered mixer.
They moulded the bricks painstakingly and burned them in a kiln which may still be found on the hill today. Many crooked and twisted bricks yet to be found there give mute evidence of how many bricks were spoiled be- fore they finally had enough to do the job. It took three and one-half years before they had enough bricks to build their house. Their house was of two "L" shaped sections, 55 feet long and 40 fect wide, two and a half stories high, with a huge chimney at each end. The walls were 18 inches thick and some of the rooms 18 or 20 feet square with 101/2 foot ceilings.
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