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MY LIFE
by Mrs. D. Meyer
Mrs. Dirk Meyer was
Annie Harms, the daughter of Henry Hofker
Harms, a farmer and landowner in Woodford County . She wrote her
life story for her family at the time of her 50th wedding
anniversary in 1922.
Henry Hofker Harms Biography
I was born in Peoria on Knoxville Avenue in a log house on January
31, 1855. My father and mother were Mr. and Mrs. Henry Harms. My
mother’s name was Janna Saathoff. My older brother, Harm Harms was
one year of age when my parents arrived in Peoria from Germany by
sail boat by way of Cuba, New Orleans, St. Louis to Peoria. They
said they were on the ocean twelve weeks. This what father told me
and said they only had One Dollar left when they arrived here, so
you see what they had to go through. All kinds of hardships, no
friends, no money, no home but the good Lord was with them and they
often spoke of the good friends they soon found and work too. So
they got along fairly well and saved a little money as they were of
the saving kind and wanted to get ahead in the new country and did.
Another thing was that they never forgot their Lutheran Church. I
heard my father and mother speak of what they had to contend with.
It is all different now. They helped to build and organize several
congregations. At Peoria, Secor, Benson, and Rochelle, Illinois, of
which I am proud of today. When we left Peoria to go on a farm of 80
acres at Kruger, Illinois which my father rented, I well remember
when we got there for there was a barrel of red pop-corn in that
house and that took my eye. I will not forget it. It was in 1859
that we lived about 50 feet from the railroad. It was not an easy
task for my mother to do her work and look after us. We would go out
on the track and every time a train would be coming she would have
to look after us to see that we were not on the track as she took my
brother Bill off several times just before the train would come as
he wanted to fight the train. We used to sit under the culvert and
let the train go over us. We had no fence or yard to keep us in. At
that time there were no fences and we always had to herd the cows,
that was the children’s job, and sometimes we would let the cows run
and we would play and forget all about the cows, and sometimes we
could not find them, then we would get a good laming from our
mother.
Kruger is a small town. It had one general store and a post office
combined. The man who owned it was named Joe Schriber. The town also
had a Blacksmith’s shop and one grain elevator and three or four
houses and that is about all it has today. The same year (1861) we
saw a large comet. It had a long tail and people said that it meant
war but it did not mean it as we already had it. It was the Civil
War and when they could not get any more volunteers they drafted men
from 18 to 45 years of age, so it happened that my father was
drafted and had to go to Springfield, Illinois to be examined but
they found he was not fit for war as he was not a well man. The old
T. P. & W. railroad passed our house with trainload after trainload
of soldier boys. They would shout and many a mother was crying for
her husband and sons.
At that time the ladies all wore hoop skirts and of course I wanted
one very badly too, but my father would not let me have any as they
cost money. So one day the neighbor girls, whose mother was dead,
took pity on me and made a hoop skirt of willows, then sewed them in
my underskirt and I was so proud and started for home. Mother didn’t
say very much but when father came home there was something doing.
He took my skirt off, pulled the willows out and I got a good
beating besides, he said it was a sin to be fashionable and don’t
you even dare to wear anything like that, I had a good cry and that
settled that, and come to think of it now it certainly was an awful
style anyway. There is such a difference now and we used to have
panties, the top was of white muslin and the bottom of some dark
printed calico. They would come way down on our shoes. I wish I
could get a picture of something like that now. When I wore them I
was about five years old and on Sundays Father and Mother would put
us in the wagon box in some hay or straw and go some place to visit.
That was customary at that time, or someone would come to visit us.
I recall on one Sunday we had company and an awful storm came up. It
was on Ascension Day when a family of seven people were drowned in
the Illinois River at Peoria. It was the Beaseman family and their
monument is still on the old cemetery now called Lincoln Park, where
my grandfather and grandmother Harms are buried and also my
husband’s brother is there. I want to say a little more about that
storm. It took our barn, haystack, and well house all away. We were
all in the hall and my brother Bill was next to the door. The wind
took the door out and he went out with it and a man by the name of
Mr. Bloom was with us and he crawled on his hands and knees and got
my brother Bill out of the ditch where he had landed along the
railroad tracks. He was bleeding terribly out of his nose and I will
never forget it. I guess we lived there about four years, then we
moved to Secor, two and half miles west, but before we moved I had
my foot frozen. It came this way. Our folks were gone and my brother
Bill and I were to stay home, so he had to get the cows as it was
getting dark. It was winter and very cold, we were so poor that our
folks could not buy us any shoes and mother made me some over-socks
of old pants and I had to wear them, so when he went after the cows
and I was afraid to stay home alone, I went after him. When he saw
me, he picked me up and carried me home on his back and of course I
froze my foot. When the folks came home we got a scolding and the
next day we had to get a doctor from Washington, Illinois and I had
to stay in bed almost three months. I had to have the foot lanced in
two places and when we moved to Secor they put a feather bed in the
wagon and three of us children in there so I would not take cold in
my foot. Some transportation that was. Then it happened my father
was drafted, but thank the good Lord he didn’t have to go.
Pastor Heydt would come on horse back from Peoria and hold services
once a month and he started the congregation in Secor until they
called a minister by the name of Herman Sieving. He was then a young
man, and my sister, Mandy, was the first baby he christened. Rev.
Heydt also started a congregation at Benson, Illinois. It was at
Secor when my father bought his first piece of land at $15.00 an
acre, from Dr. Wilson of Washington, Illinois. Of course when he
bought it there was no Benson, as it was uncultivated prairie and
had no house on it yet, so my father had to build one. Our house had
two rooms down and two rooms upstairs but was not plastered. Before
we left Kruger to move to Secor there was something else that
happened. My father had to shell his corn so he had some men come
with the corn sheller. At dinner time the man took the belt off of
the sheller and came in to dinner. Then my brother Bill, sister
Mary, and I tried to run it. I got on the platform and they made the
machine go around. I got dizzy and fell off and my foot got in the
cogwheels and mashed before we could stop it. They pulled me off and
sat me on the ground because I could not walk. Then the men came
from dinner and Mother called us. Bill and Mary went in but I could
not walk. Then my Mother found out what had happened. So she carried
me in the house, made a bread and milk poultice, that was always her
cure for sores and swelling. It helped it some but it was a while
before I was able to walk again. I still have scars on my foot so I
am well marked. For three years I always had to carry the corn cobs
for the whole neighborhood whenever they shelled corn. When I was
carrying cobs at a neighbors, the man asked me to take the snow off
of the rod. As I did, the pins in the fly wheel caught my dress and
pulled me down. I could not get loose. I called to the men for help
and they stopped the horses as quickly as they could and by that
time I was pulled down to the ground and could not get up because my
clothes were wrapped around the rod and almost broke my legs and my
clothes had to be cut off of me to get me out. That, I think is the
closest call I have ever had from being killed. I don’t think it was
right for any parents to make girls do things like that. Now, it all
different, so I think the good Lord has been with me many a time and
saved me from a horrible death.
After we moved to Secor and the War was over in 1865, I went to my
Grandmother Harms to go to German School in Peoria. I stayed four
months and the winters were terrible at that time. I recall one snow
storm that happened on a Saturday and I went to the Ting Mission
School and they had a little Christmas party for the sewing and
Sunday School classes. The teacher who ran the place was Mrs.
Reynolds. They taught me how to sew and first little songs. My
Grandmother did not want me to go as there was an awful blizzard
outside, but I was determined to go and Grandma pushed the bed
before one door and she was going to watch the other one and she
even hid my Sunday dress but I found my dress and shoved the bed
over and got out because I thought I must have my Christmas
presents. On the way, I stopped at Mrs. Weirs’ bakery on Adams
Street and warmed myself there and then Mrs. Weirs gave me a school
bag to bring John’s present from the place, which was made of
calico. I took the school bag and on the way I lost John’s school
bag, and when I got to the Ting Mission my hands were so cold (I had
no gloves) that two men had to rub my fingers with snow as they were
afraid they were frozen, but they came out all right. The program
went on and when it was over they gave me my Christmas stocking with
candy and a little book in it. Then I started home to my Grandma’s
and stopped at Weirs again. When I told what happened she almost
took my head off for losing John’s calico school bag and I told her
I couldn’t help it and then began to cry and went home to grandma’s.
When I got there she was glad I was back and ate some of my candy
but she couldn’t read my book as it was written in English. I never
forgot Mrs. Weirs and I never liked her anymore.
My parents next moved from Secor to our farm at Benson where we had
built a new home, as said before, of two rooms up and two rooms down
but was not plastered. That year we lived in it that way but next
summer we had it plastered. I was then thirteen years old. I had to
go out and work for other people, most always working for farmers. I
worked for my husband’s sister as she was not very strong and had
small children. It was here I met my husband, Mr. Dirk Meyer. I also
worked for a family near Minonk by the name of Jacob Lohnes. He was
a squire of that township. I was there two summers and it would
happen he would marry couples who could not understand English. Then
I had to be the interpreter.
I was home one winter. My father asked me how I liked it. I said I
liked it all right but could not stand to do the washings, which
were very large and I cried. It was at the time I worked for Mr.
Lohnes when we had a total eclipse of the sun. It was dark as night
and the chickens went to roost. When the sun came out again they all
crowed and thought it was morning. The following summer Mr. Lohnes
came after me again. I worked for him that summer and then in the
winter I worked for John Woltzen near Benson and stayed there until
spring. Then I went to Washington and worked for Dr. Wilson. I was
then fifteen years old. I stayed there one year. Then after that I
worked near Eureka for a man by the name of Calvin Davis, a farmer.
My sister, Mary, worked for Mrs. Davis’ father at the same time. We
were just one mile apart. Then I got a felon on my finger and I had
to go to Eureka to have my finger lanced and he told me I could not
work for a week so sister Mary and I decided we would go home for a
week, and as there was no Benson yet, but the grading was all done
for the new Santa Fe railroad. We met and walked to Eureka and
stopped at the doctors and he tied up my finger with bacon. Then we
had our little bundles and started out on the new grade. It was
March and it was cold and frosty. When we got started out on the new
grade, the sun came out and thawed out the frost, and it got muddy
and slippery and there were a few streams between the places where
the culverts were to be so we got our feet wet. Then got on the
grade again and started. Our feet became so coated with mud that we
took our shoes off and went bare-footed on the slippery mud and
frost. It was sixteen miles from Eureka to our folks. We left at
nine o’clock in the morning and arrived about five in the evening.
When we arrived we got a scolding from Mother for coming barefooted
so she got a bucket of warm water and washed our feet and gave us
something to eat. We did not get a cold from exposure. We stayed
home a week and then walked back again and we went back to our
places. When I got to my place they had piled up the whole week’s
work, so I just took my bundle and went to my brother Hy’s and
stayed there about a week, when a man by the name of Mr. Ray asked
me to work for them. I stayed there all summer and liked it very
well. I was then 17 years old. I was there at the time of the
Chicago fire. All of the farmers went together and sent a carload of
foodstuff on the 9th of October. Then I left Ray’s and come home in
October, as the folks had written me that I should come home as they
had a new minister in Secor. My brother, Bill, and I went to
confirming school together. We went four days a week. So we started
to Secor to attend the class. It was eight miles there and eight
miles back in the winter. We would go by horseback or drive, but
when the weather was bad we had to walk. There were six in our
class. When we were through, the minister said we were all old
enough to get married. He could, or he would marry us and I was the
first one of the class to get married. This was in 1872. I was
married to Mr. Dirk Meyer on June 16, 1872 at his mother’s house as
all his people had small children at the time and could not go to my
Father’s house as it was two miles away, so we decided to get
married at Dirk’s Mother’s house. We had a very large room and high
ceiling. It was round and had no end. It was the blue sky and under
the cherry trees. We had the wedding supper in the house. Rev.
Buszine married us. The choir from Secor came out ans serenaded us.
In the evening we had a chivaree. We gave them beer and cake. On
Monday Dirk took a wedding trip along to Peoria and I stayed home as
a good wife should and kept the home fires burning. Dirk took his
brother and family home to Peoria as they had come for the wedding.
After five months we sold our crops in the field and our live stock
and my father moved us to Peoria. That was the first move in 1872.
Our start was that Dirk had saved $1,800.00 and I had bed clothes
and sold my horse to buy a sewing machine. Father gave us six wooden
chairs and I still have two of them in daily use. Our first house we
rented from Mr. Zeitz on Jefferson Street. That is where Gesina and
Janna were born. Dirk put his money all in the business with his
brother Frank which was the F. Meyer and Bros. Hardware Store. Then
we bought our first furniture which cost $35.00. The bed cost $8.00,
wardrobe $10.00, second hand stove about $3.00, three kitchen chairs
and a clock $8.00 and little incidentals. No carpets. My first
carpet was a rag carpet which I made myself. My father gave us meat,
potatoes and flour. Four years later we bought a lot on George
Street and built our first house and lived there six years. We then
sold it and rented a house on Spencer Street and lived there two
years. We then built a house on Lincoln Avenue. Albert and Henry
were born in the house on George Street and Frank and Willie were
born on Lincoln Ave. In 1887 I took my wedding trip to Germany. I
went with Mrs. Fueger and Mrs. Buehler. Two Years later Dirk and Mr.
Krause took a trip to Germany by themselves and left us home. It was
not all sunshine as we lost our little boy Willie, two and half
years old.
| A bud the Gard’ner gave us A pure and lovely child.
He gave it to our keeping
To cherish undefiled |
But just as it was opening
To the Glory of the day,
Down came the Heavenly Gardner
And took our bud away. |
He was the sunshine of our home, but thank the Lord he is not lost
but safe in heaven. So we have one waiting there for us and it my
only wish and prayer that we will meet all of our children there.
This was in February 1892 and in 1881 my dear Mother died, 57 years
old. In 1887 Dirk’s mother died. She was 80 years old. In 1905 my
father died, 80 years old. In 1911 we went to the Holy Land. It was
our best trip and one of the most interesting we have ever had. In
1915 we took a trip to California to the World’s Fair and visited
Yellowstone Park, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon. While at Seattle we
took a trip on the Columbia River and a trip through Canada. We
spent fourteen winters in Florida. Spent most of time in West Palm
Beach. While in Florida we went to Cuba twice.
In 1903 we built new house on McBean Street and celebrated our
Silver Wedding anniversary there, and both our girls were married
there within six months apart. We lived there six years and sold it
and moved to the Woolner building on Adams Street. Lived there two
years and then moved to Goodwin Street. Lived there two years and
then built a double house on Second Street. There we lived six
years. But my life was not all joy for we had our ups and downs to
bear like many other people. At that time I suffered a stroke and
was very poorly. We had bought a lot on the West Bluff (Barker
Avenue) built a new home and lived there six years when moved to
Pekin, staying with Sena, our daughter, nearly two years. We bought
a lot and built a bungalow and moved in 1920. We still live in this
house and hope to end our days here as we like it. Am getting on in
years and cannot do much anymore, as Dirk is 83 and I will be 77
years of age. Besides our own children we raised four grandchildren
(Henry’s two Bobby and Walter and Frank’s two Betty and Bus). We do
hope that it was not all in vain the way we have taught them and I
have told them how to live to be Christian men and women, and not to
forget their Lutheran Church, and may the good Lord be with you and
bless you all.
I belong to two Ladies Aids, one
in Pekin and one in Peoria, they are both called the Martha Society.
I have done a great deal of quilting, I made thirty Rose Quilts and
have basted over twenty-five of them for other people, but now my
work of this kind is done and I feel all other work is getting
harder on me and I think I will have to give up all work but it is
hard to do after doing things so many years and I know that this
world will go on just the same without me.
May the good Lord be with you and Bless you all. This is the wish of
your --
MOTHER
GRANDMOTHER
GREAT GRANDMOTHER MEYER Nee HARMS
Donated by Norm Nesheim, a great nephew of Annie Harms Meyer
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Johann Adam