SOME HISTORY OF THE DESCENDANTS

OF

HANS ULRICH GRAF

Today in northeast Switzerland in the Rhine Valley in the canton of St. Gallen sits the town of Rebstein, first settled long after Rome’s legions were forced out by southerly expanding German tribes. Rebstein is some distance above the banks of the Rhine about eight miles south of Lake Constance and is the first known residence of our Graf family. The view below is a scene on the outskirts of Rebstein with the foothills of the Alps in the background.

The name Graf was originally the title of persons who controlled a portion of land similar to an earldom or county or canton. Rebstein belonged to an area administered by the Holy Roman Emperor dating back to the 700s when Charlemagne ruled. The early Grafs were rulers bound by treaty and custom to support the empire in exchange for local authority.

The ruling family at the time of Rebstein’s birth was the Grafs von Montfort. Their castle at Sargans was a strategic crossing point of trade routes from the south as well as west toward Zurich. That famly was “Graf” in the true sense of the word. However, the Grafs of our family were probably once owned by a Graf, no different than other property. Being Graf’s serfs, we would have been referred to as “the Graf’s”, and in more modern times simply took the name of our former owner.

It is, of course, possible that we descended froom the Graf nobilitiy, but considering sheer numbers of nobles versus serfs, it is unlikely.

By 1375 the Grafs of Montfort, having been the main feudal force in the Rhine Valley since 1230, were at the twilight of their power. Their land lay directly in the path of the swiftly emerging House of Hapsburg; Europe was leaving the Middle Ages with increeased economic and political possibilities, so the Hapsburgs gradually gained control. This did not overly concern the serfs in Rebstein since they were to serve many masters in years to come.

The surname Graf appears in records many times from the 14th Century on, sometimes referring to a serf, sometimes to a noted citizen. In 1723 Hans Caspar Graf was named mayor of Rebstein. Whether he is a relative of ours is debatable; however, it can be said that all we Grafs are spiritual brothers and sisters since our anceestors walked the same hills and breathed the same socio-political and religious atmosphere. The newer generations continued to influence history both in th mountains of Switzerland and the plains of America.

__________

Forty-one years after Hans Caspar Graf held the mayor’s office in Rebstein, a Hans Jakob Graf was born to Hans Ulrich and Regina Graf. Hans Jakob and his wife, Anna Barbara, had seven children. The youngest was Samuel, born January 14, 1801, and we descend from him.

Europe was going through political upheaval at this time. In 1798 Napoleon’s troops had swiftly occupied Switzerland. The Swiss aristocracy saw this as a rescuing force to uphold the failing feudal traditions. Liberal Swiss hoped that Napoleon’s control would bring them new political expression. All of Switzerland was shocked to find the invaders levying heavy taxes to finance further military actions. A new constitution, however, with a more centralized system, eventually brought a representative government. The Rheintal became part of the Canton of St. Gallen and Rebstein became a town in its own right in 1803. In July of that year the village council was elected. There were four Grafs on this council.

The Vienna Congress was convened in 1815 by the victorious allies whose aim was to restore the old order. One of the decisions was for the Canton of St. Gallen to pay reparations to the displaced feudal nobility and weighty taxes were levied on the already suffering people. This was also a time of bad harvests, and in 1816 there was much [1] driving rain and 35 days of heavy snow. Potatoes rotted in the ground; the distilling of schnapps was outlawed so that the poor would at least have some starch to eat. The following year brought no relief with heavy snow until late May which then melted into the flooding Rhine destroying dams and flooding the valley. Typhoid fever and famine followed with nearly 30,000 starving people left to wander in search of food.

I HANS ULRICH GRAF wed REGINA ______[2]

II HANS JACOB GRAF b. 1764, d. 3 Apr 1829 wed ANNA BARBARA GRAF[3] ,

d. 31 Dec 1833

III JOHANNES GRAF b. about 1797 wed ANNA MAGDALENA MAFLI

IV 1.JOHANNES GRAF

2.SAMUEL GRAF

3. ANNA BARBARA GRAF, died in her teens in 1823

4. JOHANN JACOB GRAF

5. JOHANN HEINRICH GRAF , b. 1835, a baker[4]^, , embroidery manufacturer[5]

Children of this fifth child were:

V. 1. HERMANN GRAF d. 1904

2. HEINRICH ROBERT GRAF , baker [6] and lace manufacturer,[7] d. 1919. In 1916 when American cousin Franklin Hess visited, he reported that Heinrich Robert and family had a “delightful and beautiful garden, partway up a mountain slope, near Rebstein with an exquisite view of the volley”. Incidentally, Franklin Hess also met the remaining first cousin of Johann Heinrich Graf, an elderly Rebstein man who, he said,”resembled his Uncle Samuel Graf with white, curly hair.”[8] As to the beautiful garden, when Ruth and Mary Hess visited the Swiss Grafs in 1922, they told the relatives back home that when they were invited for tea in the garden, a servant was summoned by pushing a bell-button immbedded in a tree. [9] Heinrich Robert was active in the village council, school board, church, parliament and served as a district judge. He moved from the old Graf home to the mountain villa and became the largest vintner in the area. It was not uncommon to see him and his family helping to bring in the grape harvest.

VI 1. THILDI GRAF , b. 13 Aug 1894 d. May 1989. She first married in 1914 but was soon widowed when her husband, on a business trip to England, perished in a German U Boat attack in the English Channel, leaving her with a small child. She eventually married Col. Werner Kobelt who became top commander of northeast Switzerland preparing the area for an expected German attack during WW II. They had two children. In late years she lived in a mansion converted to apartments outside Rebstein where Marilyn and Ben Rasmusen visited her in about 1986; she immediately greeted them in perfect English and they found her charming as seems to come through in the photo. photo.

They each separately noted her strong resemblance in look, manner and taste in dress and decor to Dora Graf Suppes. Her daughter Ursula said that when Thildi first took the apartment in this villa she was uneasy because it had previously been the home of her father’s main business competitor.[10] Later, about 1988 Rasmusens again visited Thildi when she was in a nursing home, very frail and not able to respond to Ursula’s suggestion that she speak English. The Swiss Grafs were visited by various American cousins over the years and were always most hospitable.

VII 1. TILDI ____, WED ____ GIGER.[11] In 1982 she resided in St. Gallen and was the wife of a doctor.

VIII 1. HANELORE GIGER

2. JEANETTE GIGER

3, LINA GIGER

4. YVES GIGER

VII 2. URSULA KOBELT , Social Worker. Marilyn and Ben visited her attractive

Herrliberg apartment in about 1988. She hosted at a lakeside restaurant, reached by ferry, and then accompanied them to visit her mother to whom she was very devoted.

3. WERNER KOBELT wed Ruth Outwater. He was 57 in 1982 and president of a silk company in New York City. Died October 2001.[12]

VIII 1. HANS KOBELT wed Barbara Netforos

2. WENDY KOBELT

VI 2. ALICE GRAF b. about 1895 wed ___ Fuchs. In 1964 she lived in Rebstein[13]

VII 1. RENEE FUCHS wed ____ Cigunarice, lived in New York in 1964[14] and in

San Francisco in 1982[15]

VI 3. HEINRICH ROBERT GRAF b. about 1899. Owned or managed an embroidery factory in 1922[16] and became a very successful textile manufacturer.[17] Prior to the two World Wars his father had textile mills in Europe and South America but when major production sites were demolished twice in 25 years, business declined. He turned to other pursuits including breeding thoroughbred horses. In 1964 he lived in Chantilly, France.[18] His brother Max told Burket Graf, “Poor old Robert up there in Chantilly would get married and wait to see if it would work out, and it wouldn’t, and he’d get divorced and then do it again. But I got married late, and now I’m surrounded by my wife, children and grandchildren”.[19]

4. MAX GRAF, wed Ruth Bruggner in his early 50s after a colorful life. In 1982 he was 81. He had lived as a gaucho in Argentina from about 1920 to 1930 and said that

he never worked much of his life but he had fun. He explained that his father died when he was 18 and after that, he had an independent income. In his later years he had a rare book store in Zurich. When Burket Graf visited, Max showed him the 1748 family bible where the children of Hans Jakob and Anna Barbara Graf were listed, including our ancestor, SAMUEL. Max’s grandchildren were there when Burket visited, PATRICK and ASTRID

KOTTMAN.[20]

VII l. EVA GRAF wed ____ Kottman

2. MAX GRAF, JR.

III SAMUEL GRAF (second son of Hans Jacob) b. 14 Jan 1801 wed 13 Jul 1834 Margarete Finly b. 1798, d. 2 July 1840. Wed a second time Louise-Anna Parker b. 23 Mar 1818, d. 6 October 1916) d. 16 Oct 1876. The early 19th Century turbulent years must have been difficult for all the Grfs. Samuel’s family would have attended the Swiss Reformed Church founded by Zwingli in Zurich and are reported to have been very faithful and pious. Their food must have been mostly “riebel”, a dish made of white corn and eaten together with coffee and milk. There were probably potatoes, apples and pears grown by every family.[21]

Samuel may have worked in the vineyards as a youth. Also, he may have worked in his brother’s lace manufacturing business.[22] It seems possible that he learned about textiles since he worked at tailoring upon his arrival in New York City and later, in Pennsylvania and Illinois.[23]

Dora Graf Suppes told her daughter that her grandfather Samuel sewed all the buttonholes for clothes her grandmother made and that he made a black broadcloth wedding suit for each of his sons. She was sorry her father Franklin’s suit had been worn out by his children playing “dress-up”.

The photo on the following page is of Samuel Graf’s boyhood home in Zeilbach. The photo was brought back to America in 1916 by Franklin Hess, who is believed to be the man pictured - descendant David Hess says it resembles his grandfather’s stance. [24]

The residence was called “the house of many windows”.[25] It was the home of the Johann Heinrich Graf family in the early 1900s.

Thildi Graf Kobelt remembered visiting her Grandmother Graf at this home, “a very modest old lady living there with her two spinster daughters”.[26]

The house was sold by the Graf family. In 1962 it caught fire and burned down.

Mary Graf Hess writes that the parents of her father, Samuel, died soon after he left home.[27] His father died in 1829 and his mother in 1833.[28] A citizen’s identity certificate exists for Samuel dated 19 February, 1828.[29]

There is also a certificate bearing Samuel Graf’s name which is a release from a military contingent of the State of Bremen; it is dated 30 April 1832 and originally the physical traits noted were legible. [30] At the time of this writing Ursula Kobelt tried to decipher these notations and could not, but she says that in past years she had seen a copy held by some other Graf relative that was more legible.

Copies of both documents are shown below. These, together with Mary Hess’ statement, would seem to indicate that Samuel left Rebstein in 1828 and was a soldier for Bremen until 1832.

With the computer enhancement it is almost possible to see the heighth notation - it appears to be five feet seven inches.

Evidently, shortly after his military discharge Samuel decided to emigrate to America because the next record is his arrival in New York City with only 50 cents to his name. Later, his wife Louise-Anna, asked him if he had not felt desparate. He replied that he looked confidently to the future. He soon found work learning to tailor in a New York shop. In about a year he had moved to Somerset County, Pennsylvania.[31]

He used his tailoring skills in later years to make each of his sons a wedding suit. He also sewed the buttonholes for all the clothes made in his family, which must have been considerable since ready-made clothing was not available in the few shops of that day.

The photo above, taken in the 1970s, is of Meyersdale, a village in southwestern Pennsylvania were present-day Amish live. It is the area of Somerset County where Samuel settled. We know from his obituary and daughter Mary’s record that he lived nearby and have corresondence to him from a settlement named Meyers Mills in that vicinity.[32]

There he met Margarete Finly and they were married in July of 1834. They soon left for the West, following the rivers. When they came up the Illinois River to LaSalle, the rapids upstream stopped river transport and they took a stagecoach to Ottawa. They stayed in Ottawa that first year and their first child, Anna Barbara was born there. Though Samuel did not know much about agriculture, they decided to farm. They like the prospect of land in the north end of LaSalle County, so they loaded up in 1835 and took the wagon trail (which became “the State Road” iin 1841) that is now named Hoxsey Road. It led through the settlement of Northville and to the area that would become the town of Somonauk in the 1850s. They chose a spot near the trail and not far from Somonauk Creek, built a two-room log cabin, and the family of three took up life there in the wilderness.[33]

Samuel’s son Franklin told his son, Harrison Graf, who later passed the information to his grandson Tom Warren, that the cabin stood on the north side of the west entrance to the present Lake Holiday. This would be he northwest corner of Easy St. and Mary Ann St. The spring where the family got water was probably at the brook to the south. The story goes that when the Grafs moved to a frame house later, an oak sapling was planted to mark the old log cabin location. It is debatable whether the oak on the north side of the entry road is that historic oak siince it is not an ancient tree.[34]

Pioneers needed the wooded areas near streams for water, fuel and bulding materials. The unsheltered, swampy prairie with its tough, unworkable sod was considered worthless.

Samuel worked at tailoring and started to farm. An official township record shows that on November 16, 1839 Samuel “Graff” had 160 acres, the northeast quarter of Sec. Eight along the Somonauk Creek. The log cabin was in the very northwest corner of this property. Not long after they had arrived, Samuel had put four acres near the timber into wheat; this was always called the “little field”. “As a man, he was full of activity, earnest, true, exceedingly conscientious, always wanted to do right. But one sad experience came to him - that was in losing his beloved wife, Margarete, and he was left with three small children.[35]

Samuel wrote in English in the family Bible, “She was a good and faithful wife and a tender Mother, sacred be the remembrance of her.”[36] Samuel and Margarete’s children were very young when their mother died.

IV 1. ANNA BARBARA GRAF b. 3 May 1835 d. 1888 (or 27 Sep 1885) wed Rev. William F. Stahl. William had seven children from a previous marriage. When her mother died and she was three, Anna Barbara’s father left her and her little brother with neighbor James Powell’s famly for the winter until he returned with his new wife.

V 1. ALBERT STAHL, born about 1858, d. March 1888

2. EDWARD STAHL m. Olive M. Crawford , lived in Kansas

3.THEODORE STAHL b. about 1859 d. 3 Mar 1866

4. CARL J. STAHL was a forest ranger, near Denver, Colorado

5. LAURA E. STAHL b. about 1861 d. July 1884

6. ELEANOR H. STAHL b. 1863 d. 1936 wed Alfred Marcellus d. 1928

VI 1. DAVID MARCELLUS b. 1890 d. 1961 wed Hattie ___

VII 1. WILLIAM MARCELLUS died in a tractor accident

2. ROBERT MARCELLUS lived in Princeton, Illinois

V 7. SAMUEL T . STAHL born about 1866 d. 25 Feb 1879

8. OTTO E. STAHL b. about 1870 d. June 1891

9. ANN M. STAHL born about 1873 d. November 1890

10.JOHN J. STAHL born about 1878 d. September 1906

IV 2. SAMUEL GRAF b. 13 Feb 1837 d. 6 Oct 1921 Wed Julia Bernard b 15 Dec 1847, d. 29 Jun 1931. Samuel was a Civil War soldier in the Tenth Illinois Infantry Compay C of Sandwich, Illinois, said to be the first full company raised in the United States

under the first call of President Lincoln.[37]

Wedding picture of Samuel and Julia Bernard Graf

Samuel’s father, Samuel, went to Ottawa to hear the Lincoln-Douglas debate August 21, 1858. He said later that he approved what Lincoln said but he did not vote for him in the upcoming election because he had four sons; he thought if Lincoln was elected, there would be a civil war.[38] As it turned out, only one son, Samuel, was a soldier in the war that came as prophesied. After three years of arduous campaigns, he was mustered out February 7, 1865. Long after the war, because he had been wounded in the back, Samuel was teased by his siblings because, they said, he must have been running away from the battle.[39] After their marriage Samuel and Julia farmed for 36 years on a farm two miles west of Somonauk.[40] Later, they lived in Sheridan. Aunt Julia was plump and jolly. They had a peacock which strutted around their yard.[41]

IV 3.MARTHA GRAF b. 8 Jun 1839 d. 6 Dec 1889. Wed Henry Gustav Stahl (brother of W. F. Stahl) Martha, who not quite a year old when her mother died, was cared for

by another neighboring family, the Warners, while Samuel Senior went back to Somerset County the winter of 1840. It must have been a very hard time for her despite the caring neighbors.

V 1. JULIA BEATRICE STAHL wed Harold O. Lawrence

2.LYDIA G. STAHL wed ___ Meyer

3.FRANK STAHL

4.CARL STAHL, died age 7

5.PAUL STAHL, died age 20

6.ANNA STAHL, died age 10

In 1909 there was a law suit in the LaSalle County Circuit Court by Lydia and Julia Stahl and their father Henry Gustav Stahl against the defendants, the widow and children of the deeased Samuel Graf, Senior and the executors of his will regarding the dispersal of his estate. By this time, Martha Graf Stahl had died. The outcome is unknown.

After Margarete Finly Graf died in July of 1840, and after the harvest, Samuel returned to Somerset County and courted Louise-Anna Parker. She was much younger than Samuel and Margarete but was said to be a good friend of Margarete (indeed, her first daughter was apparently named for this first wife). She had clear, blue eyes and was about five feet six inches tall according to great-grandson Verne Hazeman with whose family she lived part of her old age.

Her father died when she was very young. At the age of six her mother put her in Mr. Musser’s family to remain there till she would become of age, 18 years. When she was 17, she was confirmed and joined the German Lutheran Church. The last year of her stay in Pennsylvaania she lived in the family of Mr. Beachley. She was married at that place the 22nd of March 1841. Her mother’s maiden name was Mary Hill an she married a Parker. ^[42]

Mr. Beachley is reported to have been a minister.[43] Louise-Anna’s mother was living in Meyersdale at the time of the wedding and attended her daughter’s marriage to Samuel.[44]

A note made by Dora Graf Suppes reads “Thomas Hill 1881, John Parker 1866, Isabella Parker 1839.” These names are followed by “Corkley 315 Salisbury Street”. It is the writer’s belief that Corkley refers to a Somerset genealogist she once met. The years referred to are perhaps death dates?

After their marriage, when Samuel and Louise-Anna started for their new home, they probably traveled on keel boats, the standard river transport. It seemed to Louise-Anna and her friends that she was setting off for the very far West; the young women teased Louise-Anna about marrying such an “old man” and advised her to push him overboard on one of the rivers “to save herself”. [45] She was 23 and he was 40.

The first change they made was at Pittsburgh. Then, they came down on the Ohio River through Cincinnati down to Louisville. They changed again at Cairo, rode on the Mississippi River up to St. Louis, changed boats again and took the Illinois River and rode up to Peru, Illinois. From there, they came by wagon to Ottawa and from there by wagon to their final home in Somonauk. They were 11 days on the way. In a couple of days they had cleaned up their little cabin and settled down for good again. Then Father Graf went and got his three little children and brought them home again.[46]

Samuel Graf was not a rugged man; Louise-Anna was strong and helped him in the fields. The Potawatomi were still living along Somonauk Creek, still hoping they would not have to give up their homeland. Verne Hazeman said that Grandma told him how the Indians were expected to attack one time and Grandpa was sick, so they couldn’t go to the fort at Ottawa. She took the children and they all lay down in the wheat field for two days so as not to be seen from the cabin or trails. He stayed in bed with a loaded gun, but they did not have visitors. Dora Suppes also heard this story and that Grandma had a hard time keeping the children quiet for such a long, dangerous time. Just a few years before in 1832 there were 17 settlers massacred at nearby Indian Creek settlement.

In 184` Samuel obtained a Preemption Certificate No. 5768, signed by President Tyler, for 160 acres, northeast quarter of Section Eight. The next year his and Louise-Anna’s first child was born.

IV 4. MARGARETE GRAF b. 4 Jan 1842 d. 27 Feb 1917. Wed in 1863 John Henry Beck, b. 18 Jan 1837 d. 30 Apr 1925

V 1. ANNA-LOUISE BECK b. 5 Apr 1865 d. 28 Aug 1940. Wed Edward Hazeman (son of Gustav)

b. 21 Aug 1866 d. 1 Dec 1945

VI 1. CLAUDE H. HAZEMAN b. 28 Jun 1896 d. 4 May 1984

2. MARGARET ANNA HAZEMAN b. 13 Jun 1898 d. 1974. Wed__Bailius

VII 1. LOU ANN BAILIUS, wed__ Sarver, divorced. 2nd marriage Ed Alleman

VIII 1. RONALD SARVER

2. ROBERT SARVER

VI 3. VERNE HAZEMAN b. 13 Jan 1902 d. 14 Aug 1995. Verne remembered his great-grandmother Louise-Anna well. He fondly recalled the stained arms of her rocking chair “from her sweat”. He passed this chair on to his niece, Lou Ann Alleman, and he gave Samuel’s rocker to cousin Marilyn Rasmusen.

He is pictured below in his Plainfield, Illinois residence; he had moved from his lifelong farm to a new residence that Lou Ann found for him to be near her. “Best I ever had,” is the way he described his new little home. He planted, harvesed and cooked well from his vegetable garden there and made delidious pickled apples from the crab tree in his back yard.

V 2. LILLIE BECK b. 1865 d. 31 Aug 1965

3.LUCY BECK b. 1867 d. 1956 wed Prosper Loux

4. SAMUEL BECK b. 1879 d. 26 Feb 1959 wed Lila Legner

2nd marriage, Mildred Peterson

VI 1.DOLORES BECK wed Robert Barnes

V 5. FREDERICK BECK b. 1870 d. 1951 wed Adeline Hazeman (dau. of Gustav) b. 1877 d. 5 Feb 1956

VI 1. VIVIAN BECK b. 1901 wed Jesse Hupach b. 1891 d. 5 Apr 1966

V. 6. MARGARET BECK lived in Washington state, wed Leon Foos

VI 1. LIDA FOOS wed Norman Robert Pringle

V 7. ANGELINE BECK b. 13 Feb 1886 d. 6 Jan 1981

Margarete Graf Beck spent more than two decades rearing babies; like many women of her day, the family was large - economically and socially satisfying, but a lot of hard work

A picture of Margarete appears below. From her clothing she seems to have been a cheerful, attractive woman.

I

In 1843 when Samuel and Louise-Anna’s first baby Margarete was about a year old, Samuel obtained aother preemption certificate, No. 6323, 80 acres, the east half of the southwest quarter of Section Five. Now, he had preempted a total of 240 acres.

IV 5. EDWARD GRAF b. 2 Sep 1843 d. 16 Sep 1849. Shortly after his sixth birthday Edward was in the grass outside the cabin. His little sister Mary Ann was playing by a log nearby. She heard him scream. His mother also heard him cry out. When she went to investigate, he was lying on the ground. Samuel walked to Northville, about a mile to the south, where there was a doctor “of sorts”, but Edward’s bofy swelled up and he died quickly. They supposed he was bitten by a snake, though no puncture marks were found.[47]

He was sadly laid to rest in what was called the “German cemetery”, now the Lutheran cemetery south of Somonauk. Samuel recorded the death in the family Bible and called Edward “a dear and lovely child”.

IV 6. DAVID GRAF b. 22 Sep 1845, d. 23 Feb 1934. Wed Adaline Hazemann. In 1875 David and his other brothers were given land about six miles east of Beatrice, Nebraska. Samuel Graf Senior had bought six, eighty-acre tracts in 1872 and had now conveyed these tracts to his six sons. David, along with brothers Franklin and Johnand the three wives, left Illinois and spent the winter of 1875 in Beatrice. While returning from the store with a sack of flour one day, David was offered the vacant lot on which the Beatrice post office now stands, to be traded for the flour. He declined as he thought the flour was more valuable to him right then, it being almost impossible at that time to raise tax money for land.

So the three couples took their teams of oxen and started farming the next Spring in these years of hardship and deprivation. What the hot winds of the late 1800s did not burn up, the grasshoppers finished. Stories were told that the hoppers even chewed up wooden pitchfork handles.

They persevered and eventually, David’s farming operation encompassed 600 acres. In 1876 he bought the northeast quarter of Section 11 in Midland Twp.; he paid $12 an acre. There was a three-room house on the land ain which David and Adaline’s first three sons were born. By 1892 they had built a large farm home, and a large barn soon followed.

Half-mile long caravans of Indians passed by the frm in those days on their way from the Oklahoma Reservation to visit tribes on the South Dakota Reservation. They were reduced to begging, and they took whatever they were permitted as their old culture told them was proper. When Adaline was home alone and saw Indians coming, she would lock the doors, pull the blinds and lie down on the floor till they went away since, if the house was unlocked, they would come right in. This was the way they had always lived among themselves.

David was a nature lover and in later springtimes he planted many trees. He was an extensive reader with wide interests; he enjoyed simplicity. He and Adaline were devout members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They had no nearby church but every winter , preachers would come and hold nightly services in the school house; they would stay with the Grafs for a two-week period.[48]

When David Bernard was 12, he went to Nebraska with his mother and grandmother to visit Uncle Dave and Aunt Adaline. He remembers Aunt Adaline always had fresh peaches or plums on the breakfast table. He said Uncle Dave seemed tall and thin, an aquiline face and white hair.[49]

V 1. ALPHA GRAF b. 9 Nov 1877 d. 19 Dec 1943. Wed Lillian Hazemann. Some time before Alpha married, he and his brother John bought 200 acres of land from their father. Later, Alpha and Lillian built a fine home here using the large slabs of stone from a pioneeer house on the property as well as native lumber from their timber. They faarmed here for many years.

VI 1. LUCILLE GRAF b. 11 Jun 19__ . Wed Roy H. Ochsner

VII 1. MARTHA OCHSNER b. 10 Feb 1954 . Wed John Carey

VIII 1. BENJAMIN CAREY b. 26 Feb 1980

2.ELIZABETH CAREY b. 22 July 1981

3.AMY CAREY b. 2 Sep 1983

4.DAVID CAREY 7 Jul 1985

A picture of Lucille Graf Ochsner and Roy Ochsner appears below with daughter Martha and husband and children.

V 2. JONATHAN GRAF b 14 Feb 1880 d. 24 Feb 1956. John, as he was called, farmed with Alpha and lived on the farm where he was born all his life.

3. CLARENCE GRAF b. 4 Jun 1883, d. 27 Jul 1961.Wed Elizabeth ___.Clarence first farmed near Filley, Nebraska where his children were born. He than operated a 2000-acre ranch in the western part of the state, then sold that and built a home in Venango using the native walnut from the Graf’s home place in Gage County.

VI 1.LAVERNE GRAF

2.DELISLE GRAF

3.MILDRED GRAF

4.PRISCILLA GRAF

5.ROSEMARY GRAF

V 4, FORDYCE HAVILAH GRAF b. 14 May 1894, d. 18 Jan 1988. Wed Hazel Lucile Burket, b. 12 Oct 1892, d. 22 Jul 1956. Second marriage to Lois M. Elwood, childless. The three older Graf brothers went to Mount Olive Country School - their mother boarded the school teacher for about 50 years - and attended one or two years of Beatrice High School; then they took courses at Northwestern Business College. Times were better by the time Fordyce came along and he graduated from high school and the business college by 1914, though he clerked in a grocery and helped on the farm during these years also.

In 1983 Fordyce wrote, “I will never forget the good times we had the summer of 1913”, (when he visited Illinois) “Three girls and three boys including me, besides the John Graf daughters from Belle Plane...we must have driven Aunt Helen crazy, but she was a good sport and knew how to handle that wild bunch.”

After his marriage he was Clerk in the County Treasurer’s office and then Clerk and Assistant Treasurer for Beatrice. In 1920 he and his brothers invested in a farm implement comany. Business was good that year as they accepted notes for payment after harvest. However, a small depression took corn to eight cents a bushel.

After this financial loss, Fordyce was asked to work for a company in Lincoln that had him specialize in county and city audits. This was not only fruitful for him but for the customers. The counties recovered considerable funds that had heretofore been lost to incompetency and fraud. He resigned after several years to return home to Beatrice and start an abstract business. He had to learn the intricasies of writing abstracts from the ground up, but proved very successful and continued at this for 52 years. Fordyce was very active in the First Christian Church of Beatrice and in late years was elected Elder Emeritus.

VI 1. MAXINE THERESA GRAF b. 31 Dec 1916, d. 21 Jan 1999. Wed 16 Aug 1941, Lawrence Hill, b. 15 Feb 1910, d. 16 Sep 1991. Maxiine graduated from nursing school at Broadlawns County Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa. She worked in hospitals, private nursing and as a clinical technician for over 20 years. Though childless, she was “mother and grandmother” to her father’s children and grandchildren. They always loved to visit “Aunt Tessie”.

2.BURKET E. GRAF b. 26 May 1918. Wed 20 Jun 1952 Nanette Hope b. 12 Feb 1928. Divorced after four children. Second marriage 17 Jan 1972, Sheila Lee Dickinson Dinsmore b. 26 June 1923, d. 19 Mar 1996. Burket graduated from the University of Nebraska earning a B.A. of Architecture with Distinction after which he served in the Naval Air Corps in the South Pacific Islands during World War II. He was in the Naval Reserve and retired with the rank of Commander. He has been a practicing architect in Lincoln both before military service and the many years since. Pictured below is a church in Lincoln that he designed.

VII 1. BURKET GRAF, JR. (TED) b. 17 May 1953

2. KATHERINE HOPE GRAF b. 6 Aug 1955. Wed 12 May 1981William Chesen b. 4 Jan 1954 d. 8 Jan 1992. Second marriage 1 Dec 1955 Richard N. Murphy b. 12 Mar___

VIII l. CAROLINE CHESEN b. 30 Dec 1986

2. JAMES BURKET MURPHY (JACK) b. 27 Oct 1999

II 3. JULIE HOPE GRAF b. 8 Apr 1957 . Wed 19 May 1984 Steven Schlussel, divorced

4. GEORGE BURKET GRAF b 29 Marr 1961. Wed 10 Oct 1993Vanessa Prestridge b. 6 Jan 1957

VIII 1. ISABEL GRAF b. 18 Jan 1997

2.TATUM NICOLE b. 2 Dec 1999

Burket’s second wife was a widow with five children. A part of both his and her family had reached maturity by this time so that only a part of each group lived together, but all are very compatible. In fact, Burket met Sheila through his children - his had invited hers to use the indoor pool in their home, which Burket had designed earlier in his architectural career. After the two single parents had known each other a while, they informed the children they were all invited to a rather special dinner party at Sheila’s home. All these teen-agers were taken by surprise when, after the meal, a wedding ceremony took place there, accompanied, Burket said, by half-supressed giggles from the girls.

Burket is pictured below on the right with Paul Graf on the left. The photo was taken in about 1992 at Rasmusens when Burket and Sheila visited Illinois relatives; Ben Rasmusen

is in the background.

VI 3. BETTYLU GRAF b. 23 Sep 1921 d. 15 Feb 1970. Wed 23 Oct 1941Hugo Heffelfinger. Bettylu was a graduate of Beatrice High School and in nursing school for one year before she married. Her husband was a career soldier retiring as a full Colonel shortly before Bettylu’s death.

VII 1. STEPHEN HEFFELFINGER b. 10 Sep 1942, married and divorced

2. CHRISTINE HEFFELFINGER b. Jul 1944 .Wed 26 Aug 1966 Charles Glock Jr., divorced.

Second marriage, Herb Gartz

VIII l. KRISTEN GARTZ b. 16 Aug 1972

2.CHARMIN GARTZ b. 14 May 1974

3.JESSICA GARTZ b. 4 Aug 1976

VII 3. DAVID HEFFELFINGER b. 10 Jan 1951 Wed Barbara ___

VIII 1. STACY LEE HEFFELFINGER b. 7 Nov 1980

VII 4. THERESA HEFFELFINGER b. 19 Oct 1959

VI 4. JOHN GRAF b. 17 Oct 1923 . Wed 27 Nov 1947 Mary Ann Walker b. 10 Nov 1928. John joined the Navy Air Corps a year out of high school and became a dive bomber pilot in the South Pacific Islands. Upon discharge with the rank of Captain he attended college in San Diego obtaining a degree in Business Administration. he worked in sales several years and then started his own insurance agency in Lincoln which he operated successfully.

VII 1. JOHN GRAF JR. b. 11 Dec 1949 Wed 1 Dec 1973 Betty Lott

VIII . 1.PATRICK GRAF

VI 5.DAVID GRAF b. 4 Apr 1928 d. 4 Jan 2004. Wed 1 Oct 1950 Cora Lee Conway b. 19 Feb 1930 d. 15 Oct 1977. Second marriage 31 May 1980, Helen Joan Thorson. David joined the Marine Corps after high school graduation. After military service at Camp Pendleton he was chief underwriter for insurance companies in Sacramento. After their childdren were all in school, Cora went back to Doane College, received a degree in Education and taught many years. After his wife graduated, David also went back to college and earned a business degree, then obtaining a marketing position with International Harvester.

VII 1. JAMES (JEFF) GRAF b. 13 Oct 1952. Wed 27 July 1974 Nancy (Suzanne) Rosenthal

VIII 1. TIMOTHY GRAF b. 30 Jun 1978

2.JONATHAN GRAF b. 21 MAY 1980

VII 2. EDWARD SCOTT GRAF b. 31 May 1956. Wed 17 Sep 1984 Sandra Kristine Sisler, d. 18 Sep 1989. Second marriage 7 Feb 1992, Sherry Cribbs Wetsel

VIII 1. Jason Richard Wetsel

2. Sommer Leanne Wetsel b. 16 Apr 1983

3. SUE GRAF b. July 1993

VII 3. ROBERT CONWAY GRAF b. 17 Nov 1957. Wed 9 Jun 1984 Joy Bain

VIII 1. REBECCA NICHOLE GRAF b. 27 Oct 1987

2.BRYAN ANDREW GRAF b. 11 Jun 1989

3.STACEY BREANN GRAF b 16 Sep 1990

VII 4. KATHRYN GRAF b. 8 Jan 1960 .Wed 18 Jun 1988 Keith McKnight. Second marriage, Kim Mace.

VI 6. SUZANNE GRAF b. 8 Aug 1935 . Wed 23 Dec 1956 Ronald McPeck. Suzanne attended Doane College two years and then taught in Hastings, Nebraska until she started raising a family. Her husband was also a teacher.

VII 1. LISA MCPECK b 26 Jul 1961. Wed Christopher D. Smith, divorced. Second marriage 26 Apr 1990, Kevin Boyle.

VIII 1. ASHLEY D. SMITH b. 11 Feb 1983

VII 2. CHRIS MCPECK b. 4 Sep 1963

3. POLLY MCPECK b. 15 Jul 1966. Wed 6 Apr 1985 Kenneth D. Richardson, divorced.

VIII 1. MELISSA RICHARDSON b 15 Oct 1985

2. BETHANY C. RICHARDSON b 30 Apr 1988

3. MICHAEL S. RICHARDSON b. 16 Sep 1992

Two months after David Graf, the grandfather of descendants listed above, was born in 1845, his father Samuel Graf left Louise-Anna and the six children (the oldest was ten) to make the trip to Chicatgo for their land. He took up the claim for 240 acres (NE 1/4 Sec. 8 and E 1//2 of SW 1/4 Sec. 5) based on the 160 acres preempted in 1841 and the 80 acres across the State Road in 1843. He paid the government $1.25 per acre for this prairie and woodland. Family notes say “no dispute was allowed to come up as to who owned the claims”.[50] Speculators who tried to buy thousands of acres at the federal land sales were physically threatened by the neighborhood groups of early pioneers who came to the sales after putting several years’ hard labor into their land.

After David, the next of Samuel and Louise-Anna’s to be born was Mary Ann:

IV 7. MARY ANN GRAF b. 20 Nov 1847 d. 13 Mar 1934. Wed Paul Hess b. 17 Oct 1838, d. 15 Nov 1919. Her gradson David wrote that his grandmother was “a good-humored, certainly well-balanced person of strong character and integrity”. He remembered many a Sunday-after-church fried chicken meal at her home and said she was a fine cook. She enjoyed history and poetry.[51]

Marilyn Rasmusen remembers her Great Aunt Mary’s Valentine box of candy given her when she was five and how she treasured the little heart-shaped box later. Mary Ann and Paul retired from farming to the residence at 435 E. DeKalb Street in Somonauk. Louise-Anna lived wiith them in her old age, and then when Mary Ann and her brother Franklin had both lost their spouses, he lived with her for a time.

V. 1. FRANKLIN HESS b. Jan 1870 d. 1931 . Wed Rilla Meeker. Franklin Hess helped on the farm as most boys did from an early age, but eventually, when school days were over, he wanted to go to college. But still, he helped on the farm and for a time taught country school. His mother would say, “Yes, some day you will go to college.” After he had heard this many times, he suddenly had heard it long enough and said, “No, now.”, and off he went to Knox College.[52]

He became a school principal at Tonica, Illinois and later graduated from Kent Law School and worked many years for International Harvester in Chicago. He and Rilla built a lovely country home near the Somonauk Creek and named it Boulder Terrace.

Although Samuel Graf Senior had been a more educated person than Louise-Anna, she said she wanted education for her children more than Samuel did. No doubt she was pleased to see her grandchildren getting higher schooling. Incidentally, the LaSalle County Directory published in the late 1800s lists Samuel Graf as a Democrat owning 216 acres.

In 1916 Franklin Hess traveled to Switzerland and visited Graf relatives in Rebstein, as pictured on Page Six; grandson David Bernard cannot positively identify him in the photo but writes “he was a large man and the spirited stance would be typical”. Franklin and Rilla lived in the Chicago area but eventually built Boulder Terrace quite near the home of his sister Cecile on County Line Road. Considerable woodland went with this property and late in the 20th Century his descendants donated a part of the woods to the adjacent DeKalb County Forest Preserve.

VI 1. RUTH HESS d. 1969 Wed Roland Barker. Ruth and her sister Mary followed in the footsteps of their father and visited the Swiss Grafs in 1922. When they returned, they reported to their cousins that they were invited for tea in the Robert Graf family’s beautiful gardens and that when some item was required from the house, a button imbedded in one of the trees was pushed to summon a servant. After tea they were driven about the beautifl countryside.[53]

VII 1. FRANKLIN BARKER Wed Elnor ___

VIII 1. HELENE BARKER

VII 2. ROLAND BARKER died in infancy

3. GORDON BARKER Wed Alberta ___

VIII 1. ROLAND BARKER

2. JOHN BARKER

VII 4. JOSEPH BARKER wed Patricia ___ divorced, two children

VI 2. MARY HESS d. 1951 Wed Harris Pett

VII 1. JOANNE PETT

V. 2 MYRA HESS b. 13 Jan 1872 Wed Bert Jones b. 1871 d. 25 Dec 1954

VII 1. HAZEL JONES b. 1896 Wed Lloyd Anderson. Hazel and Lloyd lived Somonauk and Sandwich. Hazel was known for her beautiful alto voice and sang for many programs. A picture of Hazel as a young woman is below.

VII 1. LAUREL LLOYD ANDERSON b. 19 Aug 1923 Wed Elaine Louise Erickson b. 28 Nov 1927

VIII 1. NICHOLAS LLOYD ANDERSON b. 15 Sep 1951

2.LISA ANDERSON

3.JULIE JO ANDERSON b. 30 Jul 1953 Wed 28 Nov 1969 Timothy Hanley, divorced

IX 1. ANGELA CHRISTINE HANLEY B. 2 MAY 1970

VIII 4. JEFFREY ERNEST ANDERSON

5.DANIEL ANDERSON

VI 2. PAUL JONES b. 28 Oct 1898 d. 1 Apr 1950 Wed Harriet ___

VII 1. JANICE JONES Wed ___ Nebgen

Below is a four-generation picture of, left to right, Mary Ann Graf Hess, Myra Hess Jones, Hazel Jones Anderson and Louise-Anna Parker Graf taken about 1899. This photo must have been taken not long before Myra died; it is believed she died of diphtheria.

V 3. SAMUEL FREDERICK (FRED) HESS b. 31 Jul 1876 Wed Nellie Meeker. Fred as he was called became Chief of Police in Aurora, Illinois

VI 1. EVERETT HESS Wed Hazel ___

VII 1. ROBERT HESS

2. DIANE HESS

V 4. CECILE LOUISE HESS b. 17 Jan 1882 d. 4 Jun 1965 Wed 22 Sep 1904 Edwin Bernard b. 23 Jan 1878 d. 26 Aug 1965. Cecile taught country school before she married. Dora Graf Suppes remembered that Cecile and another very young lady were about to travel to Ottawa to take the exam to qualify as teachers. They were quite anxious to appear as mature as possible and so piled their hair on top of their heads where it was pinned to a “rat” in the latest style. This, if nothing else, probably gave them some confidence in passing the test. Cecile and Edwin were married at her family home and farmed for all their working years ieast of Somonauk. They were faithful workers in the Congregational Church.

VI 1. BEATRICE CECILE BERNARD b. 23 Feb 1906 d. 5 Aug 1982. Wed Roland Dean d. 1960

VII 1. MARY YVONNE DEAN b 29 Oct 1933 d. 9 Aug 1990 Wed Gordon Ensing

VIII 1. VICKIE JUNE ENSING b. Jun 1952 Wed Michael Gron

2. DIANNE ALYSE ENSING b. 20 Sep 1955 Wed Douglas Williams

IX 1.BROOKE CECILE WILLIAMS b. 21 June 1983

VII 2. EDWIN EARL DEAN b. 16 May 1935 Wed Betty Herrin

VIII 1. CATHY SUE DEAN b. 17 Aug 1960 Wed Stephen Talbot

IX 1. ANDREA RENAE TALBOT b. 10 Sep 1987

2. SARAH ANN TALBOT b. 18 Jun 1994

VIII 2. THERESA ANN DEAN b 23 May 1964 Wed Michael (Scott) Rumsey

3. RHONDA RENAE DEAN b 28 Oct 1971 Wed Randall Wright

VII 3. DOROTHY ANN DEAN b. 24 Dec 1937 Wed Willard Mudget

VIII 1. TAMARA LYNNE MUDGET b 9 Mar 1958 Wed Jay Thomas

2. JODY KAY MUDGET b. 7 Aug 1959 Wed Wayne King

3. DEANNE LEE MUDGET b. 21 Aug 1962 Wed Harry Burch

IX 1. HARRISON BURCH b. 9 Jul 1994

2. ALEXANDER BURCH 28 DEC 1995

VII 4. GAIL YVONNE MUDGET b. 11 Jun 1964

VI 2. LUCILLE MARY BERNARD b. 7 Jan 1910 d. 20 Oct 1965 Wed Edward O. DeHaven d. 1969

VII 1. DAVID FREDERIC DEHAVEN b. 29 Apr 1938 Wed Sharon Slater

VIII 1. MARY CLAIRE DEHAVEN b 16 Mar 1962 Wed James Scheid

2. ANN SLATER DEHAVEN b . 9 Dec 1966

VII 2. JANET CECILE DEHAVEN b 1 Apr 1941 Wed Edward Beers

VI 3. DAVID EDWIN BERNARD b. 8 Aug 1913 Wed Mary Vivian Lanfear b. 8 Feb 1923. David had a good deal of artistic talent as a youth. He was intersted in scupting and gathered clay from the banks of the Somonauk Creek for his projectrs.[54] After graduating from the University of Illinois, he taught Art History at the University of Kansas for many years and has been honored with artworks in many shows throughout his careeer. The picture below is a reproduction of an original woodcut by him. Every year relatives and friends receive a Christmas card from David and Vivian bearing one of his new works. In retirement he has turned his garage in Florida into a studio.

VII 1. JOY LYNNE BERNARD b 16 Mar 1959 Wed 16 Mar 1959 Allen R. Penney

VIII 1. DAVID ALYN PENNEY b. 12 Jan 1993

David Bernard has an original letter dated 1846 to Samuel Graf from Abraham Buechley in Meyers Mills, Pennsylvania. It is a business letter but with several references to Christian theology, perhaps from the Mr. Beachley mentioned above whose household included the young Louis-Anna. The letter indicates that Samuel Graf and Abraham Buechley were friends and that Samuel had borrowed monay from Buechley.

The letter encloses a note to Louise-Anna (he addresses it to “Miss Lucy Graff”) which reads as follows, “I had not see your mother lately. i made inquire at Goods and they told me that she was well and she and her husband are doing much better than expected by the neighbors. I send my best respects to you and Graf. My wife sends her best respects to you all.”

By 1848 the log cabin was out-moded as well as out-grown; the family needed more space. Not only that, the spring south of the cabin did not provide year-round water. This meant that Louise-Anna had to walk much further to get water, probably taking the toddlers with her. Samuel agreed that they needed a larger home; in 1849 a frame house was built a quarter mile north on the State Road on land he had bought in 1845. The official address nowadays is 4725 E. 2351st Rd. A little brook runs by the house - a person could step out onto the flagstone of the new house and another few steps would take you to a year-round spring. Louise-Anna kept asking when they were going to move and Samuel kept putting it off.

One day when he had gone to town, Louise-Anna had the children help her load the household goods into the wagon. Soon they were established in the new house. When Samuel came home to the empty cabin, it probably took only a minute to figure where the family had gone.[55]

It is not known whether the move was before or after the birth of the next baby, Kossuth.

IV 8. KOSSUTH GRAF b. 12 Dec 1849 Wed Dorothea ___. d. 2 Aug 1893. Second marriage, Clara ____. When Kossuth was born, Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian revolutionary, had just declared Hungarian independence from Austria. Earlier, he had legislated abolition of serfdom. He was ousted from Austria and soon visited the United States where his eloquent speeches apparently appealed to Samuel and Louise-Anna Graf since they chose his name for the new son.

Kossuth’s first wife was the daughter of missionaries in China. Dora Graf Suppes said she was named for her, so her brother-in-law and wife must have admired her. The Somonauk Reveille took notice of her death. It read that Kossuth heard a gunshot. He thought it was boys shooting but when he went round the house, he saw his wife had shot herself in the chest and was dead. A suicide note printed in the newspaper said she was too tired to live longer and asked his forgiveness for “’all the wrong” she had done him. She also asked that a “hand satchell” he would find in a bureau drawer containing a small amount of money be given to the ladies of the German church.

In his later years Kossuth lived on the southeast edge of Somonauk. He was a house painter. Niece Dora said he played the violin and piano well.

Fordyce Graf remembers his uncle visitng them in Nebraska one hot, windy summer. “Uncle Kossuth had an awful time ligihting his pipe and every time the match blew out, he would cuss. so we always called him “Uncle Cussy.” Later, when Fordyce was in Somonauk, he found his uncle in the barber shop. Kossuth said, “You’re Dave’s boy from that blankety-blank windy country”... he thought the Indians should have the country back.”[56]

A small man, he was well-known around the village; in the late 1900s older residents, when asked if they remembered him, spoike the name “Old Kossie” with affection and good humor.

IV 9. FRANKLIN GRAF b. 28 Dec 1851 d. 28 Jun 1934 Wed Helen Hupach b. 3 May 1855 d. 6 May 1914. Franklin was a handsome man with twinkly blue eyes and dark curly hair. He, like his brothers and sister, must have attended the country school up the road. It was a little, red school house about 80 rods south of the County Line Road on the south side of Somonauk. Franklin’s daughter Dora remembered going to school there the first few years (until the large brick school in Somonauk was built).

Church services were held there also. Rev. Nathan Gould was an early minister.[57] Franklin’s daughters said he had a good singing voice for trios and quartets for local programs. Dora remembered him going around the house humming “oom-pa-pas” under his breath. (Dora herself often sang snatches of song as she worked).

The girl Franklin married was a neighbor to the southwest and the marriage was on Groundhog’s Day which is an ancient holy day in Germany, perhaps a traditional day for a wedding. Two daughters, Myra and Dora, were also married February 2, a good time of year for farmers’ weddings, in good time for the planting season. The local traditional moving day is March 1 for any farmers taking up new quarters.

Her nephew Verne Hazeman remembers Aunt Helen as a “good-size woman, rather tall, rather light in coloring. During his boyood she visited his family and stayed overnight there near Leland at the time of a funeral.

A copy of Franklin and Helen’s 1875 wedding certificate appears below.

When Franklin married Helen, they traveled to Nebraska to farm the 80 acres given them by his father. Though brothers David and John were also settling nearby, neighbors were few. Helen told that sometimes Indians would come riding up and gallop in circles around the house, then come to the door. She said if a housewife would give them a feather from her feather duster, they were pleased and would ride off. At times they would take a chicken or two.[58] Here is the wedding picture of Franklin and Helen showing the wedding suit that Samuel tailored.

Settlers in Nebraska had challenging work, but eventually, the country was settled. Franklin chaired the directors of the country school where the Graf children learned their ABCs. Nearby was the “Graf Woods” with its walnuts, hackberrys and oaks. An 1888 history reads that Franklin Graf has planted “a very fine orchard where may be found in season an abundance of apples, plums, cherries, etc. Within his home are found many marks of that inherent refinement and culture that make it the brightest and most attractive place to those whose privilege it is to be members of the family.”[59]

Nephew David Bernard remembers his Uncle Franklin as seeming “the jolliest of the brothers and sister”. Daughter Dora remembered her mother teasing her father about not knowing how to speak good German; this seems likely since her parents came from Germany and his from Switzerland.

Daughter Edna told a story about her mother, almost ready to leave the house, when the china cupboard somehow became unbalanced enough to fall forward. With a moan she took off her hat and started to pick up broken dishes, but Frank told her to go on and that he would clean it up. Said Edna with gusto, “Now, that’s the kind of father we had!”

V 1. EDWARD ANDREW GRAF b. 25 Mar 1876 d. 13 Mar 1892 . Eddie, as he was known,[60] was born in the same year his grandfather Graf died. When this first-born of Franklin and Helen’s died at the age of 14, it must have been quite a blow. Frank however, was known as a self-possessed man; nephew David Bernard writes, “I can still see him smoking his pipe. He was quiet and unruffled as were most Grafs.”

Eddie had what is known today as appendicitis. Dr. Grabe, a well-known physician there in Beatrice for years, admonished the family not to give the sick boy anything to drink as this was the prescribed treatment in those days. Eddie was very thirsty, of course, and the sqeaking of the windmill shaft kept reminding him of water. His family quickly dis-connected it to stop the noise. In the years after his death, Helen always regretted not giving him a drink. She greatly admired their lady doctor Grabe, though, and was a personal friend.[61]

Incidentally, the David Graf family remembered that this doctor saved young Fordyce’s life when he had scarlet fever.[62]

Helen herself was known as “good” with sickness. She would walk across the fields to take freshly-made poultices or to help sick neighbors in other ways.

Going back to that year of 1876, the year of Eddie’s birth and Samuel’s death, when Samuel died, the newspaper reported that he had been unwell for abot a year and that “Doctors disagree as to his disease. It was probably dropsy.”[63]

The appraisement of his personal estate included four horses, 30 head of cattle, four hogs, six dozen chickens, farm equipment including hedge knives and cider mill, 15 tons of hay and other items such as cider, potatoes and a barrel of salt. He left a life interest in this and his farm to his wife and $200 each to his children. his grave is in the “German” cemetery south of Somonauk.

Pictures of Samuel and Louise-Anna in their later years appear below.

Verne Hazeman said admiringly, “Old Louise-Anna was about five feet six, blue-eyed, husky, with big arms. She looked like she’d worked!” He remembered her living with his famly and sitting in her rocker. When she lived with son Frank’s family, Dora remembered her rocking, knitting lace and softly whistling to herself. One of her expressions was “Not worth a Continental”. Grandson Paul Graf says that “according to my mother, old Louise-Anna was always very stern”.

In 1848 Samuel had attended the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Ottawa, and he liked what Lincoln had to say. He would have voted for Lincoln, he said, but because he had four sons he did not want war.[64]

His daughter Mary described him to her niece Dora as quite a scholar but she did not believe that any of his children took after him in that way.

V 2. ALBERT GRAF b. 4 Feb 1878 d. 14 Feb 1878. A copy of a page from the family Bible appears below. It lists baby Albert as well as some of the other children of Helen and Franklin Graf.

V 3. MYRA LOUISA GRAF b. 6 Oct 1879 d. 23 Feb 1937 Wed 2 Feb 1901Willis J. Banzet b. 1 Sep 1868 d. 23 Sep 1959 Nebrasks had a blizzard in 1888 known as the “School Children’s Storm”[65] , and it could have spelled disaster for the Graf children.

The teacher at Mount Olive country school saw that the snow was being driven in eye-blinding sheets, and she sent the children home. Myra put her two little brothers, Will and Harrison, behind her and, all holding hands, they started in what she hoped was the right direction. She put her free hand out before her, and they pushed through the storm. She knew they were approaching home, and as they were passing by the invisible goal, the tip of her little finger just brushed a corner of the house. By feeling along the wall they were able to find the door and the anxious embrace of their mother.[66]

This attractive picture of Myra was probably taken before she was married. Her father never cared for it and said it “made her look like a hussy”.[67]

Myra and Will farmed on the west side of the State Road a mile south of Somonauk, but when brother Will and his wife suggested they partner in a sheep ranch in Idaho, they all decided to move West. They set up ranching and the women worked as hard as the men. Myra was out on the range one day with the chuck wagon taking the men their dinner. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Myra felt something was wrong in Illinois and she started crying. They soon received the sad news that Helen, Myra’s mother, had died at that very time. Sheep ranching turned out to be a risky business, and when it failed entirely, Myra and Will took the train back east.

They stopped to see the Nebraska relatives on the way. In visiting around Beatrice they found that work was available for Will and it seemed a pleasant place to live. They spent the rest of their lives there .

When Myra became very ill with cancer, she distributed her jewelry amongst the relatives. She sent sister Dora a necklace with a little amethyst pendant and a gold bracelet with two dangling hearts. She sent a round-robin letter to her brothers and sisters that speaks volumes of love and gratitude; she asked them not to feel too badly “as this time comes to us all and it always comes, just so we feel prepared”. The letter included this poem:

Always live for those who love you,

And the good that you can do,

For the heaven that lives above you

And awaits your spirit, too.

VI 1. LUCILLE FLORENCE BANZET b. 17 Sep 1907 d. 25 Oct 1907

Myra and Will adopted Lucille unbeknownst to Myra’s mother Helen. The girls of the family decided to make a festivity out of it - a seemingly general trait in the Graf family. There was to be a sewing party at the Beelman sisters’ in Somonauk, a fairly routine affair. Myra and her sisters arrived early and put ittle Lucille in a large basket, covering her slightly so that it looke like a batch of mending. When Helen arrive, someone suggested she check on that basket, and much to her surprise, she found the baby. This must have been the highlight of the party and the talk of the town. Unfortunately, Lucille did not live very long. Helen told Myra that, next time, she would go along and they would choose another little girl.

2. HELEN LOUISE BANZET b. 6 Nov 1907 d. 10 Feb 1994 Wed Rex Hotchkiss about 1930. Second marriage about 1985 Robert Mixon b.20 Mar 1908 d. 1988.

When Helen Louise was also adopted, it called for a party. She at this point had not been named. A suggestion was made that everyone write down a preferred name and they would all be mixed in a container and one drawn out. This was put into action. Will was the winner of the draw with the name he had written - “Sweetheart”. Thereafter, all her life the family called her Sweetheart.

Helen Louise grew up in Beatrice and graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She worked in an office at the State Capitol for years, before and after her marriage to Rex. She was a kind, generous cousin; Marilyn Rasmusen remembers that when she was little, Helen asked for measurements of her doll and periodically mailed intricately stitched tiny dresses and a wee coat with a fur collar.

She spent many years as a widow before marrying a second time.

VII 1. BERNE BANZET HOTCHKISS b. 23 Mar 1940 Wed 23 Nov 1959 Judi Ewing b. 10 Jan 1943. Divorced. Second Marriage Peggy Rohrbouck Knapp b. 15 Apr 1945

VIII 1. RICHARD BERNE HOTCHKISS TRAYLOR b. 1 Aug 1960 - name changed to Traylor when mother re-married.

2. BERNE DEAN HOTCHKISS b. Feb 1969

3. RHONDA KAY HOTCHKISS b. 1 Jul 1971

4. ROBERT LEE HOTCHKISS b. 25 Mar 1973

VII 2. DON WILL HOTCHKISS b. 16 Jun 1941 Wed Cheryl Neihardt b. 16 Jun 1941. Divorced.

VIII 1. DONATA ELAINE HOTCHKISS b. 12 Mar 1962

2. DON DALE HOTCHKISS b. 2 Jul 1963

3. TERRY FROST HOTCHKISS b. 15 Mar 1966

V 4. WILLIAM PAUL GRAF b. 6 Jul 1881 d. 5 Jun 1958 Wed 1906 Amanda Amelia Hazeman b. 23 Feb 1878 d. 2 Dec 1971. Second marriage 1920 Pearl Weber b. 1889 d. 1946. Will, according to sister Dora, was the brightest of these Graf siblings. He worked for a railway company in Chicago before marrying. After he and Åmanda had married and lived in Chicago a while, they decided to try sheep ranching in Idaho. This did not prove profitable, their marriage foundered and Will went to southern California. He eventually had a successful orange grove production there. After he died, the foreman of the grove told his sons that Will had spoken admiringly of his mother back in Illinois.

VI 1. WILLIAM PAUL GRAF JR. b. 10 Oct 1911 Wed Verna Joyce Lee b 17 Oct 1919 d. 20 Dec 1978. Paul, as he was called, was about six years old when his parents separated. His mother brought the two boys to Sandwich, Illinois and arranged for Paul to enroll in school. Paul remembers taing the train to Somonauk to visit Grandpa Graf. Uncle Harold met them at the sttion with a buggy. Aunt Do and Uncle Ed were at the gathering; after the other guests left, Paul asked his mother if Uncle Ed would bring Aunt Do back some time. When assured that he would, Paul says he stopped worrying but that his mother teased him about this compatibility.

Paul and Verna had a happy married liffe in Sandwich where Paul worked in Gamble’s Hardware. He had worked at various jobs from an early age. Her heritage was Norwegian and Paul enjoyed her good Norwegian cooking. They also liked to go to dances.

Paul lost Verna to cancer, but he has carried on for many years, cooking healthily for himself and tending his garden. He often visits his son’s and daughter’s families in Minnesota and northern Illinois. His daughter’s family always invites him to go along with them on annual camping trips; he spent many a night in a tent with a sleeping bagwhen he was well up into his eighties. This year when he is 94, he had to bow out of their trip to Alaska since he was recovering from the trials of a burst appendix but is slowly recovering energy.

He has always enjoyed family heritage and history. He has studied the ancestry, remembers the past and, at the age of 94, has a good “map” of the relatives in his head. he has an avid interest in the doings of his far-flung cousins.

Since he has spent most of his long, congenial life in Sandwich, he is well-known and knows well the history of the area. A picture of him and daughter Diane is below.

VII 1. GARY LYNN GRAF b. 1 May 1953. Wed 8 Dec 1978 Cathy Ann Dalzell b. 5 Jul 1955

Gary is a skilled tool and die maker and has worked for a major airline company in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area many years.

VIII 1. AMANDA LEE GRAF b. 12 Dec 1980

2.ASHLEY ANN GRAF b 8 Sep 1983

3. ZACHARY SAMUEL b. 3 Apr 1985

VII 2. DIANE LEE GRAF b. 24 Apr 1958 Wed 25 May 1985 Daniel Joseph Terlep b. 1 Jan 1958. Diane graduated from Northern Illinois University and has been Chairperson of the Mathematics Dept. at McHenry Couhty Community College for a number of years. Dan is a University of Illinois graduate who majored in Electrical Engineering. He has been with Motorola Corp. most of his working life. This couple are raising their children in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Grandpa Paul drives the 50 miles to their house from Sandwich almost every weekend.

VIII 1. ERIC DANIEL b. 14 Apr 1988

2. STACY LEE b. 3 Dec 1991

VI 2. DAVID EDWARD GRAF b. 24 Jan 1917 d. 1 Nov 2005. Wed 3 Sep 1939 Juanita Hyden b. 13 Apr 1916, d. 2005. David, as did Paul, worked at many jobs as a young person and graduated from the University of Illinois. He married his high school sweetheart and then went off to war. He served with the 90th Infantry Division in World War II participating in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Utah Beach and was awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Bronze Star and two Oak Leaf Clusters. He also was given the Croix de Guerre by the French government for the Saar River Crossing.

He became a Vocational Arts teacher at Sandwich High School and was honored in Washington with the 1968 National Teacher of The Year award by President Johnson. As a result of having a Downs Syndrome child, he and Juanita and another couple founded the Open Door Rehabilitation Center. This workshop for the mentally handicapped started out in the Graf’s basement with a piecework order from a local company. The Center now does large amounts of assembly work in its own buildings and has several group homes where their clients learn indepeendent living. Said the present-day director of Open Door. “I think Dave saw the ability inside the disability,”

Dave also founded the Indian Valley Vocational Center to aid students in Vocational Arts. His family spent their later years residing in Sun City, Arizona, still meeting challelnges, still volunteering.

Dave is pictured below.

VII 1. CYNTHIA ANN GRAF b. 2 Jun 1944 d. 2000

VI 3. DOLORES GRAF ,daughterof Will and Pearl, b. 7 Sep 1923. Wed 10 Nov 1940

Emiel A. Banda b. 30 Jan 1921. Dolores was raised by her mother’s sister and her husband in the Los Ångeles area, but Dolores was unaware they were not her parents until she was retiring from work and checking on Social Security.

She then contacted her brothers in Illinois and has enjoyed becoming acquainted with the Grafs. She traveled to Illinois from California for a Graf get-together in the 1970s. Marilyn and Ben Rasmusen and Rose Marie Graf Winfield have visited Dolores and Emiel in their terraced home overlooking the Petaluma bay.

VII 1. GAIL BANDA b. 15 Aug 1941. Wed Pat Patterson

VIII. 1. VANCE PATTERSON b. 4 Jun 1964

2. LYNN PATTERSON b. 21 May 1965

VII 2. DALE BANDA b. 20 Sep 1954

3. DEL BANA b. 7 Dec 1957

V 5. GRACE ABIGAIL GRAF b. 11 Feb 1883 d. 6 Mar 1884 Grace died of diptheria. The older children also had the disease. The doctor said, “These are sick but will live; however, the baby is critical.” Grace had shown no symptoms that her mother had noticed, but she lived only a couple more days.[68]

Burket Graf and Paul Graf have visited her grave in Beatrice, Nebraska as well as that of her older brother Edward.

V 6. HARRISON THEODORE GRAF b. 15 Nov 1884 d. 1952. Wed 6 Jun 1906 Ruby Riemensnider b. 7 June d. 2 Aug 1979. When Harrison was ten, his father Franklin sold his 160 acres of Nebraska land for $50 an acre and the family moved back to the home farm in Illinois.

Many improvements had been made in the years since 1847 when Samuel and Louise-Anna first moved there from the cabin. A Spring House had been built over the spring which had determined the location of the farmstead. In Louise-Anna’s youth it was a luxury to have a spring so close, and when her daughter-in-law Helen even had a shelter over the spring with a place to keep food cold, it must have seemed the highth of convenience.

The photo below is of an oil painted by Celia Hupach Graf, looking at the farmstead from the northeast. The white building on the right was the Spring House, also called the Cream House. The spring ran under the floor and containers of food were lowered to the cool water. Dora Graf Suppes remembered that the butter her mother made was put there in a footed, pressed glass compote, quite a different situation than 50 years before when Louise-Anna walked to the other spring.

The brick building with the weathervane was the Smoke House and the darker building at the center was a summer kitchen. When the Frank Grafs moved here in 1893, this building was joined to the house to make more living space. The stream in the foreground went west and then south with the farmyard nestled in the curve. The Graf children learned to skate on it. To the east of the house was a pretty grove with violets. Louise-Anna once told her grandchildren that the oak trees were small bushes when she was a young wife; she used to hang her wash over their branches.

As a boy Harrison had a pony which he prized highly. He didn’t get to ride it as often as he would have liked since teen-age farm boys had lots of work in those days. His sister Edna thought the pony was a fine steed. When Harrison would have to be helping in the fields, Edna would have a gallop. Harrison, thinking this a bit unfair, righted the situation thereafter by taking the pony with him to the field and tying the prized animal to the fence.

When Harrison and Ruby married, they farmed her family farm west of Somonauk. They were fun-loving people. A family story tells how cousin Herbert Graf was at their house once and he, being a good musician in the family was asked to play the piano and sing. He was wearing tails at the time, evidently having come from some public program. He flipped the tails up, sat down and began to play.

The family listened but Harrison, apparently bored by Herb’s well-known sense of grandeur, signed to their pet bull dog to go after the tails. The performance was predictably disrupted, and almost everyone enjoyed the dog’s playfulness. This was typical of Harrison’s teasing.

Harrison Ruby Dorothy Franklin

Harrison had a dairy business at one time which deliverd milk to Somonauk people with a horse and wagon. One of the men who worked for him, who had worked for many others, said that Harrison Graf was “the best boss I ever had”.[69] The period in which he helped with the milking was a time when Harrison spent most days sick in bed, but this man said that every milking time, he himself would milk seven cows, the regular hired man would milk seven, and Harrison would get out of bed and take the other seven.

Later, Harrison owned and operated a the Fox River Oil Station in Somnauk. He was well-liked in the area and considered an astute businessman.

VI DOROTHY LYLIAN GRAF b. 30 May 1907 d. 25 Apr 1993. Wed 25 Dec 1934 Rollin Warren 4 Nov 1907. d. 18 Feb 2002. Dorothy remembered her grandmother Graf slightly; the thought it strange that “Grandma had a big flat stone for a step outside her door”. She also remembered tha tthe lane into the Graf farm was U-shaped and went around the house. Coming from the north, a buggy or car would drive on the north side of the brook, then cross it and turn south behind the house. The lane then contiued east and returned to the main road. Dorothy enjoyed going fishing with Grandpa Frank. They wold walk down the cemetery lane, then come to a ravine that led to the creek. Sometimes, too, she would walk to the woods they both loved with Aunt Helen who was not a lot older than herself.

After high school Dorothy attended Iowa State College where she earned a degree in Home Economics. She taught school and then was Manager of Carson Pirie Scott’s Tea Room in Chicago before marrying Rollin. He had also been at Iowa State, and they then farmed Warren acres north of Somonauk.

They were married in her family home west of Somonauk. Chairs were set in rows in the living room, and her young cousins Janice and Marilyn decided to sit in the front row to watch the show. In a few minutes Marilyn’s mother tiptoed up and whispered to them that they should sit furhter back, upon which Janice started bawling. Dora hastily withdrew.

After witnessing the ceremony from this vantage point, the cousins followed closely as the bride and groom went upstairs to change for their wedding trip. Janice had a handful of rice which she threatened to drop in a cup of water on the dresser. At this point the groom chased them out.

When the happy couple were finally about to drive off in their car, Rollin’s brother dashed out the door hoping to delay them by waving a “forgotten” suitcase. He had to drag one leg because Janice was hanging on, desparately shouting, “That’s our suitcase!” A good time was had by all.

Doroty and Rollin spent retirement years traveling and playing golf near their home in Venice, Florida. They are pictured below.

evidently at Cape Canaveral

VII THOMAS EUGENE WARREN b. 28 Oct 1935. Tom graduated from Iowa State and has been a very successful farmer. He built a hangar and runway on his farm and enjoyed many years of avocational flying. He has traveled much inThe States and abroad enjoying the history and cuisine of many areas. He is interested in conservation of the land and resources and is a careful guardian of woodland along the Somonauk Creek. This is land once owned by his grandfather Harrison and before that by Helen Hupach Graf’s sister and her husband, the Moshers. The Franklin Graf family often visited the nearby Mosher family, and the cousins, 15 or 20 of them, enjoyed the woods together.

Tom is pictured at his parent’s Florida home.

2. ROBERT FREDERICK WARREN b. 24 Aug 1937. Wed 18 Jun 1961 JoAnn

Browning b.3 May 1940. Bob graduated from Southern Illinois University and took a job with Del Monte in Mendota, Illinois. He and JoAnn had just finished building a nice home on a pond near Somonauk when Del Monte offered him a position in Hawaii. This really changed the course of their life since they accepted the transfer and raised their family in the Islands. Now that Bob has retired, they make their home in Texas.

VIII 1. BONNIE JO WARREN b. 19 Mar 1966 Wed 4 Jul 1986 Tracy Guthrie. Second marriage 25 Sept 2004 Jerry Evoy Gallop.

IX 1. TRIP ALAN GUTHRIE b 9 May 1987

2. KALEI KAMANI BLUE GUTHRIE 10 MAR 1992

3. TAVIEN EVOY GALLOP b. 21 Feb 2005

VIII 2.CHRISTOPHER FREDERICK WARREN b. 20 Apr 1969. Wed 25 Dec 1995 Tabitha ___.

IX 1. TYLER ANDREW WARREN b 28 Dec 2000

2. NICOLE BAILEY WARREN b. 31 May 2002

Grandpa Harrison and Bob Warren, getting ready to go fishing.

VI 2. FRANKLIN HENRY GRAF b. 27 Aug 1911 d. 19 Sep 1992. Wed 11 Aug 1937 Laura Jane Mosher, b. 12 Jul 1911 d. 5 Nov 1984. Frank was a typical farm boy, helping where he could. He spent considerable time with his Aunt Do and Uncle Ed Suppes doing farm chores and enjoying a stay away from home. Once he ran away and came to their house when he was small; eventually, his dad came after him and he decided home was best.

He was a toddler when his Grandma had sat down on the corner of the box and he playfully threw some sand at her. When she died the next day, his sister Dorothy said, he felt very sad and guilty. After high school he went to the University of Illinois and played football briefly until sidelined by an injury. He waited tables in a dorm and later looked back with satisfaction at how many cups and saucers he’d been able to carry on one arm.

After graduation he joined A. C. Nielson & Co and rose rapidly in this new firm which rates marketing value of advertising. He and Jane lived in Glenview, Illinois; he was a deacon in the Community Church there. He was transferred to the West Coast and eventually came back to the Chicago headquarters as an executive vice president. Jane and he spent retirement years boating and fishing in Florida waters. Frank was a director of Mote Marine Laboratory and museum in Sarasota.

Frank, at a party in his retirement years.

Frank was one of the several American Grafs who has travelled to Switzerland and visited the Graf relatives there.

He was always interested in family history and enjoyed returning to the Somonauk area.

VII 1. DAVID FRANKLIN GRAF b. 7 Oct 1940 d. 10 May 1967. Wed 14 Feb 1964 Cheryl Janet Macdonald b. 29 Apr 1939. David was a precocious child though visually impaired with only 30% normal eyesight. His mother read to him and his parents helped in every way they could. he was interested in shortwave radio as a teen-ager and had many other pursuits in electronics. His short but productive life was gratifying to all.

VIII 1 PEGGY ELAINE GRAF b. 18 Mar 1965 Wed 17 Oct 1992 Erich John Wohlgemuth.

IX 1. MATTHEW ERICH WOHLGEMUTH b 25 May 1996

2.DAVID SIGFRIED WOHLGEMUTH b. 7 Apr 2000. Here are Matthew and David when they were five and a half and one and a half, respectively.

VII 2. FREDERIC MOSHER GRAF b. 29 Dec 1944 Wed 1965 Christine Ann Oliver b. 22 Oct 1944. Divorced 1987. Second marrige Pam ___

VIII 1. JENNIFER LYNN b. 26 Jun 1966 . Wed 6 Jun 1992 Thomas Todd Groneberg b. 17 Oct 1966 . Jennifer and her husband are both writers. Their first married years were spent cattle ranching, learning the business from the ground up. In fact, Jennifer wrote a book about it. They no longer live “out on the range” but are still raising their boys in the West.

IX 1. CARTER GRAF GRONEBERG b. 31 Dec 1998

2.AVERY GRAF GRONEBERG b. 8 Jun 2003

3. BENNETT GRAF GRONEBERG b 8 Jun 2003

VIII 2.GLYNNIS LAURA GRAF b. 2 Dec 1969 Wed 7 Jun 1997 Denys Russell Slater III

IX 1. DENNIS RUSSELL SLATER IV b 17 Jan 2005

Glynnis and Denys live in a Dallas suburb.

VII 3. JUDITH LEE GRAF b. 20 Mar 1947 . Wed 26 Aug 1969 Richard Anthony Stoffa. Judith, as did her brothers, grew up in Palo Alto, California. Her husband Richard sold medical supplies when they were first married and lived in Racine, Wisconsin. Now they have a lake home in upper Wisconsin and enjoy the North Woods, hiking, snow mobiling and fishing.

VIII 1. DANIEL PAUL STOLFA b 10 Feb 1972 Wed 17 Jun 2000 Betsy Lee Moran b. 2 Mar 1972

IX 1. CHARLOTTE LEE STOLFA b 15 Dec 2001

2. CHLOE JANE b. 26 May 2004

VIII 2. DAVID FRANKLIN STOLFA b 31 Jan 1973

VI VIRGINIA PAULINE GRAF b. 18 May 1919 d. 1953 Wed Forest L. Erickson b 24 Aug 1920. Virginia spent quite a few hours of her youth taking care of her young cousins Jan and Marilyn while the parents talked or played cards, time she might have wanted for herself. After Somonauk schools, she earned a degree from the University of Illinois. She was a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority. While Forest was in the army during World War II, she taught high school classes in Somonauk.

When he returned from service, there was a gathering at her parent’s retirement residence in Somonauk. The aunts Edna, Dora and Helen were fooling around with an ouija board and getting scornful comments from the younger generation. Do, as the family called her, claimed the thing really worked; she asked Ginny to concentrate on the middle name of her husband, which only Ginny knew. Do, after whispering to Janice and Marilyn to go out back where the men were and ask Forest his middle name, started working the board. The girls returned to her, unnoticed in the midst of the various side conversations. Do kept moving the pointer and muttering the question. Suddenly, letters of a word began to form. Virginia was non-plussed when the boad spelled out the correct name.

She and Forest lived in Elmnurst then and began to raise a family. Tragedy struck, however, after a family outing at the Graf cabin along Somonauk Creek. Harrison had built this small building with the help of his grandsons, Tom and Bob, for just such occasions. After the picnic and an afternoon in the woods and on the creek, Virginia decided her family should pack up and leave for home. Between Sandwich and Plano their care was struck by a drunk driver. Virginia and her two sons were killed and Forest severely wounded.

VII 1. RICHARD LEWIS ERICKSON b 15 Sep 1945 d. 1953

2. STEVEN CRAIG ERICKSON b. 23 Nov 1946 d. 1953

The photo below is taken from Virginia’s high school graduation class picture.

V. 7. EDNA LORENA GRAF b 3 Apr 1888 d. 24 Jan 1976. Wed 17 Aug 1910 Henry Winslow Smith b. 10 Oct 1881 d. 9 Sep 1942. Her sister Dora said that, as a youngster, Edna was a tom-boy. Edna herself told that once she was driving a load of hay from the field and the team, eager for home, got out of hand. They headed for the barn at a gallop. Her dad was standing in the farmyard; all he sould do as the rack sped toward the barn door was to yell, “Duck your head!”, which Edna did and thereby saved herself from decapitation.

Another time, Edna said that she and her cousins were being noisy upstairs. Her mother called them down. Edna knew she was angry about all the noise, and so, as the excited children tore down to the bottom of the stairs, she let another girl go through the door first. The cousin received the swat on the rear that was meant to be for the dashing Edna, who usually lead the pack.

Marilyn heard the aunts discussing old times and Edna remembered that she had decided one day that if she just kept moving, no one would ask her to do some chore or other. She tried it and, sure enough, she managed to secretly loaf quite well the rest of the day.

Since her folks did not support Edna’s marrying, she and Henry eloped to the Chicago home of her mother’s sister, Aunt Isabel; this was the start of a long and joy-filled marriage. They lived in Amboy, Illinois. Henry was a fireman on the railroad. Later, he managed a gas station, and then he was a policeman. Edna operated a tea room in her home and after being widowed, worked in the Amboy post office. The kids of the Graf family were always very aware that, if no one else, Aunt Edna loved them. She remembered birthdays, brought chlldren into adult conversations and always saw the humor in a situation.

Here is Edna with younger sister Dora.

When Edna was 12, there was a surprise gathering at the Graf farm to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of her parents. She may have even been old enough to take part in the dancing; the children enjoyed seeing their folks dance the old-fashioned Heel And Toe. A sumptuous banquet was prepared and some of the children tried to snatch tidbits from the kitchen. Dora remembered the watchful eyes of the grown-ups and how they sent innocent little brother Harold to take food for them since no one suspected him of such pilfery.[70] The feted couple was presented with an elegant silver tea set by the hundred or so guests.[71]

Helen Graf lived 14 years after this party in their honor. She was well thought of by the community. The school principal’s wife told a neighbor that Helen Graf was the finest woman she had ever known. One of Helen’s daughters overheard a man at her funeral tellling that “Helen Graf was the grandest woman I ever have known”, and a respected spinster teacher said she had met university graduates but Helen Graf was the most interesting woman she had ever met.[72]

Below is a family gathering showing Edna Graf Smith in the foreground at a picnic celebrating sister Helen’s and brother-in-law Harry’s 25th anniversary. From left to right, Harry Doty, Helen Graf Doty, Ed Suppes, Dora Graf Suppes, Harrison Graf, Edna Graf Smith, Ruby Riemensnider Graf and Marilyn Suppes.

.

This was fondly recalled by all as a very happy day, despite the fact that Edna no longer had her lifelong sweetheart by her side.

Edna’s daughter Phyllis was two when she found her Grandmother Helen on the kitchen floor with a fatal stroke; she went outside and got her mother and Aunt Do. Helen lived for just a few days. The doctor advised that ice be kept on her neck. She said, “If it was one of you, i’d get a warm lamp chimney...” and then she lapsed into a coma.

VI 1. PHYLLIS AILEEN SMITH b. 28 Oct 1912 d. 14 Feb 2002. Wed 30 Aug 1930 Marcus L. Fritsch b. 16 Apr 1906 d. 9 Mar 1992. Phyllis’ Aunt Do was amused by todler Phyllis tring to talk the family dog out of bothering her for a cookie she had. She kept telling the dog how bad it tasted. This show of imagination was evident later in her quick wit and humorous twists of the language; all the Grafs had a knack for lively phrases. Some of Do’s were “lickety split”, “it’d never be noticed by a blind man on a galloping horse” and “Go to grass!” Someone asked Dora when ladies stopped wearing so many petticoats and she replied, “When I started ironing.”

Phyllis and Marcus spent their married life in the Earlville, Paw Paw, Mendota area. Marcus was foreman of a section gang maintaining railroad lines. Phyllis worked in local offices; she also loved the game of golf in her younger years. She was an expert seamstress and knitter. The photo below was taken on her last visit to the Suppes farm where she had spent many happy childhood days with Aunt Do and Uncle Ed.

Phyllis was a good cook: Marcus always had a thriving garden. The couple bickered sometimes but their deep love for each other kept them going, especially when they lost their first-born son. They spent the last years with their children in Tennessee.

VII 1. EDWARD HENRY FRITSCH b. 18 Dec 1943 d. 13 Nov 1960

Eddie was a sweet, generous boy, very modest and loving - all the best traits of his mother and father. He felt a caring responsibility for his little sister and brother. Just at the beginning of his Senior year in high school he went off one Sunday afternoon to visit a friend. The friend had a motorcycle, convinced Eddie to ride behind him, and they tragically collided with a car because of poor visibility. Both were killed. The evening of the funeral, Phyllis and Marcus were surrounded by family, but they took an hour to go visit the other bereaved parents.

2. SUSAN JANE FRITSCH b. 5 Mar 1949 Wed Russell Willoughby, divorced. Second marriage Erich CrawfoRuss lived in Illinois the first years of marriage until his work took them to Tennessee. Sue has lived there ever since.

VIII 1. TIMOTHY RUSSELL WILLOUGHBY b. 15 Sep 1970 Wed Charma Pilcher b. 4 May 1972.

IX 1. TYLER RUSSELL WILLOUGHBY b 6 Jan 1994

2.ASHLEY MICHELE WILLOUGHBY b. 18 Dec 1995

VIII 2. KAREN SUSAN WILLOUGHBY b. 7 Dec 1977 Wed James Thomas Darrow

IX 1. TIFFANY AILIENE DARROW b. 11 Jun 1997

VII 3. JOHN WINSLOW FRITSCH b. Aug 1953 d. 9 Mar 1996 Wed Bonnie Cruse, divorced. Second marriage Linda ___. John was born with a serious heart defect, a condition known at the time as a “blue baby”. his parents spent sleepless hours in ospitals, therapy rooms and with this baby at home. Eventually, major surgery gave him many years of life. He was a congenial man with many friends, both as he was growing up in Paw Paw, Illinois and later in Tennessee where he lived near his sister.

VIII 1. MARTI FRITSCH

Eighty years before the death of John Fritsch his great-great grandmotherLouise-Anna passed away. As an old lady she had taught grand-daughter Dora to sew quilt pieces; Dora had kept a pieced square of tiny red and white squares as a result. Grandson Arthur said that she sat rocking, knitting and humming. A playmate of her great-grand-daughter Hazel, when asked for memories of Louie-Anna said that “everyone in town called Grandma Graf, with a broad “A” and she was so old she was rather scary.”[73]

Once Grandma got up early as usual and started a fire in the stove in her room; somehow, the flames got out of control. “Franklin!” she shouted, and her son dashed out of his room, completely unclothed, but in time to put out the fire. Those children that saw his wild dash never dared talk much about this awesome event.[74]

Louise-Anna lived with various children for 40 years after Samuel died, but mostly on her home farm with Frank and Helen. On her 98th birthday she received many postcards from friends and relatives, a few written in German. That last year she was living with daughter and son-in-law Mary and Paul. On a trip to the privy, she slipped and fell; though there was an indoor bathroom, she didn’t want anything to do with such novelties. Afte this accident, she lived only a few months.

One of the postcards sh received is pictured below, its picture side to the right.

VI 2. HELEN ISOBEL SMITH b. 2 Dec 1914 d. 3 Jan 2006 Wed 27 Sep 1933 Donald Sherwin Donoho b. 25 Oct 1915 d 6 Jun 1990. Helen, born in the year her Great Grandma Louise-Anna died, was raised in Amboy, Illinois. She was valedictorian of her high school class. Her Aunt Do was hoping she would go on to college, but she married soon after graduation. She and Don had eight children during these next years in northern Illinois. Helen, as her sister and mother, was a good cook. She, too, had a good sense of humor. Don was a quiet, amiable man, active in representing the workers of his construction union.

VII 1. DONALD SHERWIN DONOHO JR. b. 25 Apr 1934. Wed 22 Feb 1958 Marilyn Darlene MccCardle b. 27 Aug 1936. Don and Darlene are avid gardeners and live near Dixon, Illinois.

VIII 1. DAVID LEROY DONOHO b. 16 Nov 1958 d. 16 Nov 1958

2. DONALD SHERWIN DONOHO III b. 20 Feb 1962 Wed 29 Apr 1989 Cinthia Mae Pursell

3. MARILYN DENISE b. 4 Novv 1965

VII 2. RODGER GENE DONOOHO b. 26 Jan 1936 Wed 8 Oct 1955 Rosalie Durham b. 10 May 1939, Gene, as he is known, was Fire Chief in Dixon, Illinois for many years.

VIII 1. CATHY JO DONOHO 4 Aug 1956 Wed 10 Sep 1974 David Kastner. Second marriage Daniel Crawford. Second marriage beween 1974 and 1984 to Charles Fisher. Third marriage 16 Nov 1984 to Eugene Claire Hardiek b. 30 Apr 1942.

IX 1. JENNIFER LYNN KASTNER b. 25 Nov 1975 Wed 25 Jun 1994 to Michael Cole, b. 1 Jun 1973. Divorced.

X 1. TANNER MICHAEL COLE b 28 Feb 1995 2. KALEB DANIEL CRAWFORD b. 15 Oct 2001

2. WILLIAM CLAIRE HARDIEK b. 16 Sep 1990

3. SHANTELL CLAIRE HARDIEK b. 6 Aug 1991

4.TASHA KYKER b. 5 Jul _ Wed William Anderson b. 5 Aug _

X 1. WILLIAM RILEY ANDERSON b. 16 Sep 2005

VIII 2. MICHAEL GENE DONOHO b 18 Oct 1957 Wed 4 Jun 1977 Debra Sue Haag b. 23 nov 1956

IX 1. ERIN MICHELLE DONOHO b. 15 Oct 1979 Wed 6 May 2000 Josh Stroud b. 1 Feb 1978

X 1. MACKENZIE PAIGE STROUD b 27 Oct 2004

IX 2. LIZBETH ANN DONOHO b 4 Sep 1981 Wed 15 Feb 2003 Bradley Gene McFalls b. 7 Sep 1978

3. CALLI SUE DONOHO b. 5 Aug 1985

VIII 3. MARK ALAN DONOHO b. 27 Apr 1961 Wed 12 Sep 1987 Melinda Barbara Hansen b. 10 Feb 1962

IX 1. MATTHEW ALAN DONOHO b. 1 Mar 1988

2. NATHAN MICHAEL DONOHO b. 5 Jun 1992

3.MICHELLE NICOLE DONOHO b. 26 May 1995

VII 3. JAMES DEAN DONOHO b. 12 Jul 1938 Wed 8 Sep 1957 Lora Jane Young b. 28 Jul 1938

VIII 1. JAMES DEAN DONOHO JR. b. 4 oct 1959 Wed 24 Oct 1998 Tina Kay Walker

IX Lea Knofczynski

Erin Knofczynski

1. SEAN WALKER DONOHO b. 18 oct 1999

VIII 2. LORI ANN DONOHO b. 9 Oct 1960 Wed 1 Sep 1984 Scott Hartmann

IX 1. BRET THOMAS HARTMANN b. 15 Jul 1988

2. KELLIE ANN HARTMANN b. 30 Aug 1990

VIII 3. SCOTT STEPHEN DONOHO b. 1 Apr 1962 Wed 21 Oct 1990 Lydia __

IX 1. LAUREN LYDIA DONOHO b. 28 Feb 1995

2. ETHAN SCOTT b. 27 Oct 2000

VII 4. GARY DOUGLAS DONOHO b. 19 Jan 1940 Wed 11 Aug 1962 Charla Kathryn Walters b. 28 Jul 1941

VIII 1. TODD DOUGLAS DONOHO b. 1 Jan 1966 Wed 27 Nov 1998 Colleen Marie McGuigan b. 8 Nov. 1969

IX 1. JAKE DOUGLAS DONOHO b. 3 Apr 2000

VIII 2. KURT WILLIAM DONOHO b. 13 Dec 1969

3. NINA MARGARET 4 Aug 1972 Wed 29 Aug 1998 Terrence Scott Gill b. 15 Feb 1972

IX 1. ZACHARY DOUGLAS GILL b. 15 Feb 2002

2. TRENT SCOTT GILL b. 4 Mar 2004

Helen and Don Donoho’s four older sons, listed above, are in the following picture together with their two daughters and younger son. Back row shows Don, Gene, Greg, Gary and Jim. Front row seated, Linda, Helen and Becky.

VII 5. LINDA SUE DONOHO b. 9 Jun 1945 Wed 5 Apr 1964 Alan Donald Spotts b. 23 May 1943

VIII 1.ANDREA LYNN SPOTTS b. 21 Oct 1966 Wed 16 May 1987 Dennis Dean Redmond b. 22 Sep 1964

IX 1. KYLE DENNIS REDMOND b. 4 Mar 1990

2. KELSEY ANN REDMOND b. 2 Oct 1992

3.ZACHARY ALAN REDMOND b. 23 Mar 1997

VIII 2.AMY MICHELLE SPOTTS b. 7 Jul 198 Wed 10 Sep 1988 Timothy Scott Paulsen b. 11 Jan 1966

IX 1.MIRANDA MICHELLE PAULSEN b. 16 Nov 1989

2.DEVON SCOTT PAULSEN b. 4 Nov 1993

3.MELISSA LAUREN PAULSEN 4 Aug 1996

VIII 3. CRAIG ALAN SPOTTS b 1 Mar 1971 Wed 9 Apr 1994 Rene Lynch. Second marriage Sheila Reich b. 3 Aug ___

IX 1.BRYCE ALAN SPOTTS b. 29 Jun 1998

2.BRITTANY CAROL SPOTTS b. 21 Jan 2000

VIII 4. ARMINDA KAY SPOTTS b. 29 Aug 1975 Wed 25 Sep 1999 Zavier Raul Cuevas b. 8 Jun 1975

IX 1. TAYLOR ARMINDA SPOTTS-CUEVAS b. 23 Feb 1995

2. SKYLER CUEVAS b. 4 Aug 2000

VII 6. REBECCA HELEN DONOHO b. 30 Aug 1969 Wed 30 Aug 1969 Raymond Ross Johnson Jr. b. 24 Mar 1947

VIII 1. AMANDA DEE JOHNSON b. 7 Oct 1972 Wed 26 Apr 1997 Jeffrey Edwin Mohr b. 29 Sep 1967

IX 1. JACOB MATTHEW MOHR b. 27 May 1998

2. ANNA REBECCA MOHR b. 11 Oct 2000

VIII 2. MATTHEW RAYMOND JOHNSON b. 14 Jun 1975 d. 9 Jul 1975

3. SHANNON HELENA b. 9 Jun 1977

4. ADAM MATTHEW b. 24 Jun 1981

VII 7. GREGORY LEE DONOHO b. 17 Dec 1950 Wed 24 Jun 1978 Pamela Kay Burke b. 12 Nov 1953.

VIII 1. ERIC GREGORY DONOHO 12 Feb 1980

2. BRANDON THOMAS DONOHO b 11 Sep 1981 Wed 24 Apr 2004 heather Jo Abbott b. 8 Jun 1983

3. MEGAN ELIZABETH DONOHO b. 12 Nov 1983

4.RYAN MICHAEL DONOHO b. 12 oct 1988

VII 8. MARGOT ANN DONOHO b. 12 Feb 1981 d. 13 Feb 1955

VI 3. WINSLOW FRANKLIN SMITH b. 6y Dec 1916 d. 18 Jan 1995. Wed Thelma ___, divorced. Second marriage Ilene Farley. Third marriage Pauline Spicer b. 26 Jan 1928. Winslow grew up in Amboy, Illinois . He joined the army during World War II and after the war moved to Tennessee. He spent many years there with his wife Pauline; his sisters became good friends with Pauline and appreciated what a good wife she was to their brother .

VII 1. Richard Spicer Smiith Wed Brenda Stitt 15 Mar 1968

2, Wendy Smith b, 16 Feb 1969 Wed 7 Nov 1987 Davie Dwight Holland b. 1 Aug 1965 d. 15 Mar 2004

3. WINSLOW EMORY SMITH JR. b. 17 Feb 1972 Wed 23 Mar 2002 Brandy Lee Howell b. 8 Apr 1979

VIII 1. BRANDON LEE SMITH b. 9 Jun 1999

2. LANDON SMITH b. 4 Apr 2005

VII 4. PAULA LOUISE SMITH b. 17 june 1973 Wed 12 Apr 1990 Willard Troy Walker b. 31 Mar 1966

VIII 1. MAKAYLA ANN WALKER b 16 Nov 1993 d. 16 Nov 1993

2.MICHAEL TROY WALKER b 16 Nov 1993 d. 16 Nov 1993

3.CHRISTINA DANIELLE WALKER b. 27 Feb 1995

4. WILLARD TROY WALKER JR. b. 23 Sep 1999

5. ZACHARY RYAN WALKER b. 17 Feb 2002

VII 5. CINDY ANN SMITH b. 6 Oct 1976 Wed 13 Jul 2002 David Lee Donegan b 16 Dec 1969

VIII 1.TRENTON LEE DONEGAN b. 1 May 2001

Winslow must have remembered his Grandpa Graf well since Franklin did not die until 1934 when Winslow would have been graduating from high school. There were many family gatherings during those early 1900s.

Grandpa Graf died of cancer at the home of his son Harrison. After Grandma Helen’s death, he had lived in a small house in Somonauk and later with his various children and with his sister Mary, making himself useful at gardening and other tasks. Marilyn Rasmusen remembers Grandpa in a white apron at butchering time busily making sausage in the basement of the Suppes farm house.

Below is a photo of Helen and Frank relaxing at home. The piano is a reminder of a time when daughter Edna, after carefully arranging her hair for going out, sat down to play a song. Little sister Helen, passing by, could not resist the temptation to run her fingers through big sister’s coiffure. At this catastrophic event, Edna’s hands rose from the keys in a desparate swoop to catch the fleeing Helen. Unfortunately, her arm swung into a vase of flowers which fell to the floor shattered. Middle sistter Dora, who told this story years later, was still chuckling.

The Graf farm, originally bought by Samuel Graf, had been sold by his heirs in 1920 to August menk. Curiously, the heirs selling the farm were listed as all his children and/or their heirs except for his daughter Martha and his daughter Marguerite. It is not known why these daughters were not heirs to the farm. Mr. Menk bought the 225 acres for $128 an acre.

Samuel’s son Franklin had sold his 160 Nebraska acres in 1893 for $50 an acre when he and his family returned to farm the Graf home farm. First, Helen brought the five children on the train. Dora wa two years old and had a scary recollection of the trip. When the conductor came through for their tickets, he asked Helen if he couldn’t “buy that little one”, pointing to Dora. She remembered being so frightened, she sat very still by the heater for most of the trip, hoping he would forget his offer. Helen got them all to the windows to point out the big river when they crossed the Mississippi. Frank came on a later train with the livestock and household goods.

V 8. DORA LOUISANA GRAF b. 18 Feb 1891 d. 5 Mar 1984. Wed 2 Feb 1916 Edward Raymond Suppes b. 21 Dec 1892 d. 14 Feb 1965. Dora’s first memory was of being helf up to the fence to say goodbye to Prince, a favorite horse, just before they left for Illinois. Brother Arthur was a baby; when they first showed him to her, she said, “Peetie”, meaning “pretty”. The name stuck and Arthur was known as Pete all through his youth. When Arthur could talk, he pronounced Dora as “Do”, and this name also stuck. Do and Pete are pictured here.

Dora was four when she had the honor of being ring bearer for the wedding of her cousin Fred Klaas and Emma David. She was very pleased with the flower chain necklace that the groom’s sister May wove for her to wear during the ceremony. After the wedding at the Somonauk Catholic Church there was a garden reception at the David’s home.

Dora said she loved to stay overnight with any relative or neighbor that asked her. And yet, sister Edna said that Do always liked to play quietly by herself. She and some of the family went to Singing School a mile south in Northville. The director was hired and then an annual concert was given. Dora had a good voice and enjoyed music. Regular country school was about halfway to Somonauk on the east side of the road. Someone took Do along to school once when she was younger and the teacher lifted her up to the blackboard so she could walk along the chalk rail; but then he sat her at a desk, put a book in front of her and commanded, “Read!” Dora said, “I put my head down and cried.”

Helen Donoho said that Edna remembered her father saying, whenever there was trouble, he could be sure “that little black mix was at the bottom of it”. Dora and Harrison were the only two dark ones amongst the chlldren. The Graf farm was a pleasant place to grow up with the barnyard brook and the creek nearby - fruit trees and the smoke house to raid, ice skating and coasting, games in the evening with the loser going through the trapdoor to the cellaar to fetch apples for all. Shelves there held apples and potatoes; cabbages were packed in dirt on the floor. Everyone enjoyed the creek; Pa would sometimes go down to fish after supper.

Dora was quick-tempered, quick to forgive, sensitive, modest yet with dignity; she admired intellect and had a sense of beauty and fashion, also a lively sense of humor and imagination. A friend of younger sister Helen remembered that when she and others would stay overnight, Dora would tell them ghost stories and they’d be “scared out of our wits”. When Dora was told this in old age, she said, “I didn’t think they were really frightened.” Dora said that when she would bring a friend home after school, they would try to slip into the smokehouse undetected and cut off a little sausage snack.

She was teased by her tall, blonde siblings about her small size. She hated the word “cute”. Every fall Miss Myrtle Hoadley came to board with the Grafs and sew. So, every fall Dora got a new red, knee-length dress, long-sleeved with embroidered ruffles. She wore white pinafores and high button shoes. She said, “I had to wear a hair ribbon and short skirts till later than my sisters because my mother wanted to keep me little”. The first day of Spring the children were allowed to go barefoot; then they had to wear shoes all summer.

Once, she said, her mother took Edna to Chicago and she had to stay home; so she made herself a dress from cloth that was to be both for her and Edna; she incorporated many tucks and ruffles. This was not well received when the shoppers came home.

Dora became an expert seamstress. When her mother died, a Chicago aunt offered to keep her so she could study dress design, but her father thought it best for her to stay in the country.

“People wore as many petticoats as they could afford.” said Dora. When asked the time that this custom stopped, she replied, “When I started ironing.”

In 1909 the older sisters and others their age decided to have a Hallowe’en party at Union Hall (now Olmstead Museum), and they let young Dora come with her jet black hair (long enough to sit on) and dressed her as a witch. Whe sat at the top of the stairs with a “boiling cauldron on a tripod”. She intoned the “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble” lines from Macbeth as guests arrived. Then, as she shook hands in greeting, an electric shock was transmitted by a gadget Ed Suppes rigged up; it was concealed in her hand. The press reorted that guests “can well remember the ‘shocking grip’ received”.[75]

A contemporary reminisced in late years about how Ed had really loved Do, driving his buggyclose to her and her friends and offering rides as they walked along.

The dress she wore for their bacclaureate program was of pink silk mull, empire fashion, a little below the knee. She had pink lisle stockings on which she’d embroidered designs, not being able to afford the machine-embroidered ones. Dora mentioned at another time that her Aunt Celia had done an oil portrait of her as a graduation gift and that she was very embarrassed by it. She thought it made her look pregnant and later regretted that she had thrown it out.

She described her graduation dress as “sheer white muslin with a small design worked in it, a princess style with puff sleeves and a round neck”. Here is a page from the 1910 Somonauk High School graduation program together with Dora’s card.

The death of her mother was a great shock to Dora; they were very close and Dora was always very truthful to her. In later years Dora emphasized truth a geat deal. She would not pronounce the work “liar”, but solemnly spelled out. When daughter Marilyn asked about Santa Clalus, she was told it was fun to pretend, but he was not real, just a myth.

Dora was the oldest child still at homoe when her mother died, and she felt very responsible for her dad and siblings. Years later when Marilyn was trying iano songs and came across “Sweet Bye And Bye”, Dora asked her not to play it because her mother had sung it as she worked. Frank and Helen were not particularly religious (though Helen sometimes scolded her gossipy daughters when they were “just back from church!”). Helen had been raised Catholic but removed herself and children, physically, from the church when the priest of that time had a drinking problem - in the pulpit. She swept them all out of the pew and never returned.

Dora did think, when her mother died, that now she could have more freedom. So when a “rather fast young man” asked her to a dance, she quickly accepted. When her dad found out, however, he quietly said, “I guess not.” and she was back to the old ways. She seems to have been quite popular with the boys. Della Suppes described Dora later as being “just timid enough to be beautiful”.

Once she was invited to a dance and, money being scarce, had no decent shoes to wear - only a pair of dingy white satin pumps. She found some blue and pink paint and covered them with tiny flowers; her shoes were a big hit.

Below is the school she and sister Helen attended as well as children and grandchildren of Harrison and Dora; this bullding served elementary and high school grades from 1900 to 1951.

The school was located at the northeast corner of Depot and LaSalle Streets.

When Dora happily succombed to Ed’s courting, they were married in the Congregational Church Fellowship Room. She had made a brown wool suit, side-buttoned jacket with a gored skirt and had a new hat of bown straw, “daring for February”, she said. Her shoes were bronzze-hued and she wore white kid gloves. Sister Helen and brother Harold were the attendants and then Dora served dinner bak at the Graf farm. She was about to wah the dishes when sister-in-law Amanda said, “No, not tonight.” and washed them up.

After a week’s honeymoon in Chicago, life started at Roseland, the name Dora chose for the Suppes farm when they needed a name for the livestock pedigree papers. Dora nursed any sick animal babies and raised hundreds of white Leghorn chickens. She sold eggs to a peddler from Chicago who drove a wagon out from the city and paid in gold coins. Ed told her the profits were hers to spend, so one time she brought herself a cameo ring.

There’s the tale of the orphaned lamb. As the lamb grew heavier, and pushier, she found that giving it a bottle grew harder, since she weighed about 90 pounds. She solved this problem by throwing open a window and holding the bottle out from the safety of the kitchen. This worked well until one day when the sheep came tearing across the barnyard as usual but was unable to stop. He plummeted past, crashing through the cellar window below and disappeared froom view. Picturing a limp, woolly heap, Dora hurried to the cellar stairs only to find ta lively lamb at the bottom, trying to clamber up.[76]

As a farm wife, Dora canned her garden produce and also meat and from the orchard and berry patch, sewed her clothes, painted and papered, churned butter and ironed; it was customary to iron everything from sheets to underwear till the 1940s, with even a slap and dash at the mens’ work shirts. Some of Dora’s expressions were “lickety-split”, “Go to grass!“ and “it would never be noticed by a blind man on a galloping horse.”

Dora, Ed and Marilyn moved into Somonauk in 1936, though Ed drove to the farm daily to work as always. In about 1949 they had finally made the last payment on the acreage and bought Marilyn a ring to celebrate. Their most-enjoyed social life was the potluck card group started about 1920, the Harmony Club. When they lived on the farm, they would hang a lantern in the turret to welcome the couples. Prizes were given for the top and bottom scores. Once, Do wrapped a puppy in a beribboned box for First Prize. Lila Cook won it but declined the honor; next day, she returned with her young daughter who insisted she claim the award.

The The ladies played monthly in the afternoon, besides. Della Suppes, a spinster cousin, always appreciated Dora’s inviting her as a substitute at times. It was unusual, Della said, for anyone to ask “an old maid” to fill in. She also said that single ladies such as herself were called “girls” throughout their lives - “That’s what we had to put up with.”

As a widow, Dora lived near her immediate family in Urbana, Illinois and enjoyed the people and events in the university area. She was a good conversationalist; she resumed the oil painting of her youth and went with the family on outings - including a year in Scotland and later, a year in England. She is pictured below with her grandsons.

---

[1] Manuscript by James Jeffrey Graf (grandson of Fordyce Graf) 1978, p. 17

[2] Genealogy compiled by Cheryl Graf (Mrs. David) is used throughout.

[3] Letter from Ursula Kobelt to Marilyn Rasmusen 26 Feb 1987

[4] Letter from Ursula Kobelt to Marilyn Rasmusen 1984

[5] Op. Cit. J. J. Graf Manuscript p. 22

[6] Ibid.

[7] Op. Cit. J. J. Graf Manuscript, p. 16

[8] Letter from Franklin Hess to Alpha Graf 11 Oct 1916

[9] As told to Marilyln Rasmusen by Dora Graf Suppes

[10] Letter from Franklin Graf to Ruth Hess Barker 3 Dec 1964

[11] Op. Cit Letter , Burket Graf

[12] Letter from Ursula Kobelt to Marilyn Rasmusen 3 Dec 2001

[13] Op. Cit. Letter Franklin Graf

[14] Ibid.

[15] Op. Cit. Letter from Burket Graf 1982

[16] Letter from Ruth Hess Barker to Dorothy Graf Warren 11 Oct 1964

[17] Letter from Frank Hess to Alpha Graf dated 5 Sep 1916

[18] Op. Cit Letter from Frank Graf and J. J. Graf manuscript, p. 25

[19] Letter from Burket Graf to Marilyn Rasmusen 3 Apr 1996

[20] Letter from Burket Graf to Fordyce Graf 16 Oct 1982

[21] Op. Cit. Letter from U. Kobelt

[22] Op. Cit. J> J> Graf Manuscript p. 17

[23] Manuscript of Mary Ann Graf Hess, 1907

[24] Op. Cit. Letter, Franklin Hess, also a letter from Ruth Hess Barker to Dorothy Graf Warren 11 Oct 1964, also writing by Lucille Graf Ochsner on the reverse of photo.

[25] Op. Cit letter Ruth Hess Barker

[26] Op. Cit. letter from U. Kobelt

[27] Op. Cit. Mary Graf Hess

[28] Op. Cit.J. J. Graf ,p. 19

[29] Copy of original was held by David Graf

[30] Ibid.

[31] Op. Cit. Manuscript Mary Graf Hess

[32] Copies of Letters from Abraham Buechley to Samuel Graf

[33] Op. Cit. Manuscript, Mary Ann Hess

[34] Conversation with Paul Graf

[35] Op. Cit. Manuscript Mary Graf Hess

[36] Bible in the possession of Donoho Family - Edna Graf Smith descendants

[37] History of DeKalb County, Illinois, Henry L. Boies 1868

[38] Dora Graf Suppes had heard this story.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Beelman Book

[41] Op. Cit. Dora Graf Suppes

[42] Op. Cit. Mary Ann Hess

[43] Dora Graf Suppes

[44] Op. Cit. Mar y Ann Hess

[45] Dora Graf Suppes

[46] Op. Cit. Manuscript Mary Graf Hess

[47]Dora Graf Suppes told this “handed down” story

[48] Manuscript, Fordyce Graf

[49] Letter from David Bernard to Marilyn Rasmusen

[50] Op. Cit. Mary Graf Hess

[51] Op. Cit. David Bernard letter

[52] Op. Cit. Dora Graf Suppes

[53] Letter from Ruth Hess Barker to Dorothy Graf Warren

[54] Op. Cit. Dora Suppes

[55] Conversation with Verne Hazeman

[56] Manuscript memoir of Fordyce Graf

[57] Op. Cit. Mary Graf Hess and the Beelman Book

[58] Op. Cit. Dora Suppes memory of conversation

[59] Portrait & Biographical Album of Gage County, Nebraska, p. 281

[60] Ibid.

[61] Op. Cit. Dora Graf Suppes

[62] Op. Cit. letter, Fordyce Graf

[63] Somonauk Reveille 22 Oct 1876

[64] Dora Graf Suppes, remembered conversation

[65] Country Journal Feb 1988, p. 76

[66] Helen Banzet Hotchkiss conversation with Myra Graf Banzet

[67] Dora Graf Suppes conversation with Marilyn Suppes Rasmusen

[68] Edna Graf Smith as told to Helen Smith Donoho

[69] Bill Stahl

[70] Dora Graf Suppes

[71] Somonauk Reveille 9 Feb 1900

[72] Op. Cit. Dora Graf Suppes

[73] Edna Sherman

[74] Op. Cit. Dora Graf Suppes

[75] Somonauk Reveille 5 Nov 1909

[76] All relative to Dora is conversation with her daughter

VI 1. MARILYN RUE SUPPES b 24 Apr 1928 wed Ben Rasmusen b 29 Nov 1926. Dr. Carr advised Dora to live with her sister Helen, near a hospital, the last months of pregnancy. When labor started, she lay on the couch rather nauseated and brother-in-law Harry ran to get an old newspaper. It must have been an exciting time because as he ran back with it, he had to use it himself. They had phoned Ed who drove to the city immediately. Dora said that when he arrived, he rang the doorbell with their farm telephone “number”, a long and three shorts, and she was so glad to hear it. When Dora, Ed and Marilyn arrived home, Marilyn’s happy farm life began.

Climbing trees, playing with Rusty and her puppies , watching the threshing gang at harvest time from the safety of the milkhouse roof, jumping on the piles of straw in the hayloft - when you looked up, the curving beam stretched high and away to the hayfork wire at the top. Sometimes Marilyn and the hired man’s kids, along with the cats, would liine up like a theatre audience and watch the men milk; once in a while the cats would get a spurt of milk aimed at their mouths.

Dora taught Marilyn poetry and songs - Longfellow’s “Children’s Hour” and “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”; sometimes they sang harmony. The piano, later the scene of many practice hours, was purchased from Uncle Eli and Aunt Celia’s household; the stool is still in the family.

Marilyn walked the mile to country school her first two years. A most memorable day was when the neighbor’s “old buck” ambled across the road, causing shouts from the younger ones at recess for all to cliimb the slide; this ram had a fearsome reputation for butting. Marilyn was swinging at the time and decided she was safe there off the ground. This was a miscalculation, however, since the sheep walked under the swing and stopped since it was just the right height to rub his back. She swang faster and higher midst screams from the side. Heads popped up at the school windows and soon the big boys came running and threw stones at the sheep which ended his massage.

Somonauk school years passed quickly; Marilyn graduated as valedictorian and went on to Northwestern University where she was no longer such a big fish; her English class of 500 was almost the size of her hometown. The experience was enriching, however, and after obtaining a degree there, she worked in a sales engineering office in Chicago several years. Living on the Near North side amongst other recent graduates, she could walk to work and the wonders of the Windy City lay before them - plays, opera, social clubs, lectures, the beaches, concerts were all there for the taking.

A three-week grand tour of Europe with two other young women was a highlight of these years. The Second World War had been only a few years before and all Americans were viewed as part of a “savior nation”; it was surprising and dream-like to the travelers that all the famous sites were exactly as books and pictures described. They also developed a respect for history that went back century after century.

Eventually, Chicago became so familiar as to breed, not contempt, but a sense of pedaling in one place. The only other city she and her contemporaries considered, perhaps as good as Chicago, was San Francisco, so Marilyn moved there. She found an office of seismic engineers and was working there one morning when she heard a low rumble that grew as loud as a freight train. She looked up and saw an engineer just coming round a file cabinet; apparently the look was imperative because he shurgged his shoulders helplessly. The fifth floor room began to lean, first one way and then the other like a limber tree on a windy day. People began to talk and move. There was a bit of hysteria about a seccretary who was on an errand down the street. She was back in a few minutes reporting broken shop windows. Marilyn had timed her move to experience the biggest earthquake since 1906.

During this time of learning San Francisco’s claims to fame, she re-newed acquaintance with future husband Ben who was getting a Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of California. This called for a change in plans; Ben would drive into town for the weekend and Saturday night they would go to a play, a party or some special event. Sunday they would visit a church and usually spend the afternoon lounging in the beautiful gardens of Golden Gate Park. Eventually, they took pen and paper with them to the park and wrote “the folks” about their plan to be married - she wrote to his and he wrote to hers.

After they lived for a year in Davis, Ben finished his degree and they moved back East where Ben was a professor at the University of Illinois for 27 years. The family spent two years of this time on sabbatical leaves, once in Edinburgh, Scotland and once in Cambridge, England. Here they are, on the left, at a time between these sabbatical years. and the more recent picture on the right shows Ben and Marilyn with a couple of the grandchildren, Elizabeth and Benjamin.

Dora went with them when the family went to Scotland and, seven years later, to England.

She was a good traveler, always interested in new places with well-received questions for the natives.. In this photo she and Marilyn are off on some local Urbana outing.

Marilyn and Ben also had the opportunity to travel to Europe many times in connection with Ben’s research which added interesting experiences and friendships. They volunteered in Urbana for school and Sunday School and 4-H activities; Marilyn was manager of a county youth orchestra. They gardened with their children in a community plot.

Marilyn and Ben’s chldren: Eric, Mary and Andrew

VII 1. ERIC BENNETT RASMUSEN b. 20 Dec 1958 wed Helen Choi b 19 Dec 1962. Eric went to Urbana schools except for a year iin Scotland when he was six and a year in England when 14. He learned to read in the Edinburgh school which opened his life into a grand vista of knowledge which he tried to envelop as quickly as possible. Actually, when he was about four, he lamented the fact that a lifetime wasn’t long enough to learn everything. His Cambridge school was a modern style; he chose metal working as an elective and the teacher gave high praise. He was given the top academic award at year-end, but this was a city system which had given high-scoring students scholarships and they were all off to elite private schools. He continued to do well in Urbana, not so well in sports but lauded for determination and tenacity and next entered Yale University, earning degrees of B.A. and M.A. Magna cum Laude in 1980, then the Ph.D. degree in Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He was a professor in the Graduate School of Management at UCLA for four years during which he took off a year to work under Dr. Stigler, a Nobel Prize winner at the University of Chicago. Also during this time he wrote a text book on Game Theory; now in its third edition, it has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Korean and Chinese. After UCLA he moved to the Midwest where he is a full professor at Indiana University in the Business School. Here he is in his office at Indiana U.

He met Helen (who is from Winnepeg) at Indiana U. where she was getting a doctorate in piano performance after having been a concert pianist several years. She had trained at the London School of Music. After the marriage, she taught a year at Eastern Illinois University. When the babies came, she said she found that mothering was her truest talent.

Eric and Helen’s children: Amelia, Elizabeth, Benjamin, Lillian and Faith.

VIII 1, AMELIA JANE RASMUSEN b 8 Feb 1999

2. ELIZABETH GRACE RASMUSEN b 6 Jun 2000

3. BENJAMIN WON RASMUSEN b 8 April 2002

4. LILLIAN ADALIE RASMUSEN b 11 Nov 2003

5. FAITH CICILIA b 24 Mar 2006

VII 2. MARY LOUISE RASMUSEN b 25 Jul 1960 wed Scott Robert Beale b 7 Oct 1960. Mary, like Eric, had some schooling in Urbana, Edinburgh and Cambridge. Her English school was “old school” in that students stepped aside in the hall when teachers passed and were taught loyalty to their home room classmates. She took piano and violin lessons and was active in Scouts and 4-H. Here she is with her brothers iin their Urbana backyard.

As a student in the University of Illinois College of Engineeering, she spent a summer internship with Honeywell-Bull in Paris, France. She earned her B.S. with highest honors in Computer Engineering and has been with various computer manufacturers in California ever since.

Scott, after graduating from Clairmont High School in San Diego, worked in construction and graphic design; one of his projects involved creation of signage at the San Diego Zoo. After becoming enamoured with golf and studying the subject, he earned pro status with the PGÅ and has taught golf in the San Diego area at a high school and at golf courses. When son Jacob came along the couple were elated; below is a picture of Mary and baby and one of Jacob age seven.

VIII 1. JACOB SCOTT BEALE b 19 Mar 1998

VII 3. .ANDREW EDWARD RASMUSEN b 26 Jan 1962 wed Gloria Monica Kaliniec b 18 Feb 1962. Andrew also attended Urbana schools as well as in Scotland and England. Like his brother who thought “American teachers were better but British teachers more dedicated”, he was enriched by the experience. (The pre-schooling in Edinburgh was quite individualized and the Cambridge school gave a taste of anti-American bias.) He studied clarinet and piano and was active in 4-H. After Urbana High School he earned a degree in Finance with highest honors from the University of Illinois. He worked at Harris Bank in Chicago two years and then enrolled at the University of Chicago for an MBA degree. He was with companies specializing in employee benefits for a time and then he and Gloria moved to California when he was offered a position with a Los Angeles financial consulting firm. He enjoys cooking as an avocation and is a member of the Investment committee for Monica’s school.

He is shown below at a family gathering with his brother and sister and then with his daughters.

Gloria, a native of Argentina, also earned a degree from the University of Illinois; she has been employed by various financial institutions before child-rearing took priority. She took the position of Art Director of Monica’s eight-page school newspaper since she has always enjoyed art projects; she then became Editor of the publication.

VIII 1. MONICA ELIZABETH RASMUSEN b 22 Jul 1994

2.VERONICA LISA RASMUSEN b 9 Jul 1999

Scott, Mary Ben Eric Åndrew Gloria Marilyn

Helen Benjamin Veronica

Jacob Elizabeth Monica Amelia

V 9. ARTHUR FRANKLIN GRAF b 16 Mar 1893 d Dec 1980 wed Elizabeth Worheir Agar b 22 Oct 1894 In their childhood their mother announced that Dora was to watch over Arthur and Edna was to take care of Harold.

Here is a photo taken about 1910 of Helen, Harold, Dora and Arthur.

Arthur had the distinction of being the only one of his siblings to attend Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. He was only a few months old at the time but that gave him priority over his brothers and sisters who were distributed among stay-at-home relatives and friends. His mother Helen had a new coat for the occasion (Dora related to her daughter) and that coat is now in the Olmstead Museum; it was probably her first coat since coats replaced heavy shawls about this time.

This expedition to the Chicago fair was soon after the Frank Graf’s came to Illinois. The Graf farm house was none too large for the expanding family and so the summer kitchen which had been built separately to the north of the house was moved a bit south and joined on to make more living space. (The present owner says the thick wall was noted during some re-modeling) For heating, hard coal was shoveled into the living room stove which had isinglass panels all around so that the blue-tipped red coals could be seen. The dining room had a Franklin stove which burned coal or wood, and kitchen heat came from the cook stove where wood was burned “because you didn’t want a long-burning fire”, Dora said.

Once when Helen had a brand new cook stove, she was showing it to a visitor. lifting off the lid of the deep-well cooker, she said, “Here’s a new invention.” Much to her embarassment the well was filled with cookies. Dora had baked and hidden the cookies there to be out of sight from her marauding brothers, which would have included Arthur.

Arthur had asthma as a boy, and it was decided when brother Will and sister Myra went with their spouses to Idaho that Arthur would go with them. When the First World War came along, he joined the Army serving as a medic overseas. He returned to Illinois, at least long enough to leave his kahki overcoat, puttees and helmet with Dora, then went back to Idaho. He grew to love Idaho, and after he had spent years ranching and running a Bellevue grocery store, came to be a bonified Westerner. When daughter Mary settled in the East, however, Art and Elizabeth left their mountains to move near her and Dante and the grand-children. Art found employment in a military PX and they enjoyed many years of family get-togethers though Art told grand-nephew Eric that he always missed the mountains. Art and Elizabeth made several trips back to visit the brothers and sisters in the Midwest. Below is a picture of Arthur in later years.

Elizabeth’s parents both died when she was four and she was raised by her grand-mother till she was 13 when her grand-mother also passed away. She taught school in Idaho until her marriage to Arthur.

VI MARY BARBARA GRAF, b. 2 Jan 1922.d. Dec 2007. Wed Dante A. Romano, b. 16 May 1922. Mary grew up on the Idaho ranchland. In winter she would put on her skis and fly over the countryside to the schoolbus stop. When she graduated, it was wartime, and she decided Washington D.C. would be the place to work. Marilyn and Janice remember her stopping in Chicago at her Aunt Helen and Uncle Harry’s. The girls were impressed with their cousin going off on her adventure in the East. Mary not only helped the war effort but met Dante there and they have had many happy decades. On their 60th anniversary they sponsored an Alaskan cruise for their progeny, including a great-grandbaby in arms. The following picture is of Mary and her three grand-children when they were small.

VII 1. ROBERT DANTE , b. 22 Jun 1945. Wed 20 Jun 1970 Elizabeth I. Bullock, b. 12 Mar 1945

VIII 1. LAURA ALLISON b. 7 Nov 1971 wed 26 Apr 2003 Frank G. White b 27 Apr 1976

IX 1. ETHAN GRAHAM WHITE b. 1 Jun 1005

VIII 2. REBECCA CAREY 7 Mar 1974 wed 10 Jul 2004 Philip Charland b. 21 Nov 1969

IX 1. MARY MADISON CHARLAND b. 20 Mar 2004

VIII 3. GREGORY LAWRENCE 24 Mar 1978

VII 2. DENNIS , b. 17 Apr 1951

A picture of four cousins from the Graf Sixth Generation (from the first that is known) appears below:

Paul Graf, Marilyn Rasmusen, Mary Romano, Dorothy Warren

V 10. HAROLD DEE GRAF , b. 3 May 1895 d. 5 Nov 1972 wed 24 Jul 1925 Esther Sophia Olson , b 28 Mar 1891 d. 27 Apr 1947 (Harold married a second time to Mildred Roy).

Harold had long curls when small. When it was finally decided that he was getting too old for this, he was taken to the barber shop. The barber gave him a hair cut, the golden tresses falling fast on the floor, then gave Harold a look in the mirror. Harold glanced at his reflection and his immediate response was “Put it back.”

An incident that amused big sister Dora was the time little Harold brought his mother a lovely bunch of flowers. The problem was that they were obviously from the nearby cemetery, and he had to take them back.

Here is a photo of Harold and brother Arthur.

Harold was called Little Pete by his teen-age friends. As explailned above, his brother Arthur was nicknamed Pete because of Dora’s calling him “pretty”. So when little brother Harold came along, Art was called Big Pete, Harold was Little Pete, and Dora was Do Pete.

This was among their contemporaries; adults would always keep their proper role and use proper names. An example of this was told by Vesta Prussing Arnold, a school chum of Dora’s. She and a group of young people, all of whom had been nicknamed according to the custom of the time, were sitting at the Graf table; the mother of the household, Helen Graf was pouring them coffee. When she came to a boy nicknamed Ike, whose given name, unbeknownst to her, was something very different, she said, “More coffee, Isaac?” This caused so much stifled giggling around the table that Vesta remembered and told the tale in her old age.

It is quite certain, from hearsay evidence, that Harold did not need the charm of long golden curls to be a very popular young man. One older lady of the area reminisced that after a nice buggy ride with him and another couple, she invited them all to her house for a popcorn party, and an older man in telling about the wonderful barn-raising party at Abel Anderson’s mentioned that Little Pete was the square dance caller.

An early business venture of his was running a restaurant in Chicago. He met and married Rose about this time; she was from Michigan and worked for the Bell Telephone Co. One day a man came into the restaurant for breakfast; he ate, stayed, and talked so long that finally, he said, “Well, the morning’s gone. I might as well have lunch.” After the Great Depression hit, business was not so good, but eventually, Harold and Rose found that the telephone stock, which was part of Rose’s benefits, had become fairly valuable. They sold it and bought a grocery in Muskegon, Michigan. It was an old school house, still with the belfry on top, but became a good business for them.

These were the days when the Illinois brothers and sisters would get together at the Clear Lake cottage of Harold and Rose. The men would fish and each night everyone played cards. Sometimes, late in the evening, the cards would be dealt, everyone would be estimating the possibilities of his hand, when Dora would throw her cards in the air and, with cards flying all around, say she couldn’t play with such a hand. There would be derogatory shouts of, “Oh, Do!” Though everyone seemed ready to call it a night, Marilyn was very embarrassed.

In the 1940s slacks for ladies were just coming into fashion. One day, in the secluded, casual atmosphere of the Michigan woods, Edna and Helen coaxed Dora into modeling this daring style. One of the men happened to spot her in the yard and took a picture of her crouching figure fleeing to the cottage. To his disappointment, the photo turned out rather blurred.

Harold was cut of the same cloth as Arthur but with a little more whimsy. Marilyn remembers that on his visits to Illinois he would sit down at the piano, debonair and charming, to rip off some melody, playing by ear. Then he would ask Marilyn to play; he bore up with seeming interest as she drummed out beginner’s tunes. He had a deadpan, hilarious wit that fascinated but befuddled her youth.

His sweet wife Rose died rather young, and after a time, Harold moved to California. He was in the real estate business there and enjoyed being near daughter Rose Marie and her family. He later married his second wife who was also a realtor. Here is a picture from his retirement years.

VI 1. ROSE MARIE GRAF b 14 Nov 1926 wed 10 Mar 1950 Paul Kella 25 Aug 1919 , later divorced. Married second time, Harry Barnes b. 16 Feb 1911 d. April 1963. Married third time, Glen Herschel Winfield, b. 28 Dec 1911 d. 7 Nov 1987.

Rose Marie, though born in Chicago, grew up in Muskegon, Michigan. After graduating from high school there, she trained for aviation travel work and was employed at the local airport.

About this time, an incident involving her came along which was especially memorable to cousins Janice and Marilyn. These two had taken Rose Marie up on the offer of using her car while she was at work. They were on vacation up there in the North Woods, Rose Marie cicn’t need the car just then, and they felt like a lark. What is more, Janice had recently received a driver’s license. So off they went, enjoying the sandy roads through the contryside until suddenly the car veered off the trail and stopped abruptly with a fender nestled against a pine. The dent was too large to ignore and they sadly reported back to Rose Marie. She tossed the damage off lightly and advised them on a repair shop. This seemed a fine solution and the teen-agers thought their problems were over. Somehow, the news got back to the various parents, however, and they were in for a stern lecture from all the fathers about irresponsibility and insurance coverage. Rose Marie was the only one to come out of the affair unbothered.

When she married Paul Kella, the couple decided to move to California. After the birth of her two sons and the divorce, Rose Marie married Harry Barnes. Unfortunately, Harry died of a brain tumor about a year later. She had a very good relationship with his parents, who lived in the Cripple Creek area and mined for gold, and they were helpful during this time when Rose Marie had two young boys and a baby girl to raise.

Her father Harold was also a strong support. There was all-round happiness when she met and married her third husband, and special joy when Gary came along. Rose Marie now spends time at her Modesto home gardening, playing bridge and keeping in touch with children and grand-children most of whom are on the West Coast. Here she is pictured, on the left, with her daughter Claudia and grand-daughter Natalie.

VII 1. ROBERT GRAF KELLA b. 13 Oct 1950 married and later divorced

VIII 1. JASON KELLA 18 Aug 1973

VII 2. JOHN HAROLD KELLA b 22 May 1952

3. CLAUDIA SUE BARNES b. 9 Mar 1962 wed 30 Aug 1980 Henry Alvarado 26 Jan 1961, later divorced 2nd marriage Scott Turner b 13 Feb 1959

VIII l. NICOLE MARIE ALVARADO b. 21 Aug 1978

2. NATALIE NOEL TURNER b. 3 Jan 1987

VII 4. GARY GLEN WINFIELD b. 7 Dec 1965 ,

VIII 1. COLTON WINFIELD b. April, about 2000

then later wed Monique Shervington b. Oct. ___

IX NICOLE Shervington b 1 Apr 1996

V 11. HELEN MARGERETE FERN GRAF b. 8 Dec 1898 d. 23 Dec 1984 wed

2 Aug 1924Harry Doty b 10 Mar 1896 d. 20 Oct 1951. Shown below is a scene from about 1903 with Helen, “Pa”, Harold and Arthur on the pony. The goats are perhaps the ones, Dora said, that Harrison hitched to a little cart.

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Once when Edna was “old enough to put her hair up”, she had done just that and, carefully dressed, she was all ready to go somewhere. With a few minutes to spare, she sat down and played the piano. Little sister Helen dashed by and, spreading her fingers apart, ran them through Edna’s neat hair-do. Edna swung around on the swivel stool and grabbed for Helen but in so doing knocked over a vase which broke on the floor. Dora, who told the story, was an on-looker, for once.

Helen apparently liked to tease; a neighbor, Fred Wirtz, told in his old age how he had been working with a team of horses, which wore straw hats to protect from the sun, when Helen came galloping by on a horse. She grabbed the hat from one of his team and as she and her mount tore by still at full tilt, she clapped it on Fred’s head. Even decades later, he relished this story.

One Saturday night Harold and Helen drove the buggy to town for the typical small-town shopping and socializing. Eventually, Helen was ready to go home, but Harold was not, so Helen took reins in hand, drove home and went to bed. Later, Harold found the buggy gone and telephoned her to get back to town and pick him up. Grudgingly, Helen went to the barn and hitched, not bothering to dress. Harold had said that he would start walking home and she would meet him along the road. Off she went in her nightgown.

Turning out of the lane, she saw someone coming from the north. Not wanting to be scrutinized closely, she clucked the horse to a fast trot. The buggies met on the small bridge and to her horror, she recognized her dad. There wasn’t room for the two on the bridge but she dashed on and her wheels went up over the hub of her father’s buggy. She picked Harold up and snuck home. The way Dora told the story, her dad talked for years about the crazy woman he’d met on the bridge in the middle of the night.

Dora said that all the Graf women were good with horses, except herself. When she tried to fasten a cinch belt, the belly would inevitably swell as the horse inhaled mightily thus making a comfortably loose belt for the drive. Here is a picture of Dora and Helen setting out from home with “old Prince”. When big sister Dora looked at the photo years later, her comment was, “I’m driving!” Both girls look concerned, not to mention Prince.

“!.”

Helen and Harry were married at Dora and Ed’s farm. Dora made her wedding dress and the day of the wedding she stuck blooming hollyhocks in the spaces of the low radiator in the big bay window thus making a nice backdrop for the minister. That morning his daughters had told Frank Graf that he was to give the bride away. He was pleased but wished he had known so that he could have bought a new tie. Dora always regretted that she did not think to offer him one of Ed’s. Harry’s sister was bridesmaid with Harold Graf being best man. Little Virginia Graf was ring bearer and Paul Graf “pleased the guests with a flower song” according to the Reveille. Other Graf reltives who served were Hazel Anderson who played Lohengrin’s march and Herbert Graf who sang. After the wedding supper, everone tried to keep an eye on the bride and groom to stop their get-away. Dora put on a coat , pulled a deep-brimmed hat over her face and grabbed the arm of one of the men; they rushed through the crowd pretending to be the escaping couple.

They dashed to the cellar door to appear to be leaving through the basement. However, they didn’t know that little Phyllis Smith and others had moved washtubs of water (where cut flowers had been stored) to the bottom of the stairs. The escapees stumbled right into the water. Later, when the real couple tried the same route, they got down the stairs and as far as the cellar door leading up and out. Nephews Paul and Frank Graf had been posted outdoors to keep a general watch for Helen and Harry. Paul saw the cellar door being raised and ran over and sat on it. Eventually, the happy pair managed to leave.

They set up housekeeping in the Chicago area where Harry was employed by a utilities company. After his death, Helen worked as a bridal consultant for Marshall Field’s department store. Upon retirement she lived in Colorado near Janice and the grandchildren. Pictured below are Harold, Dora, Edna and Arthur with Helen on the right. The other group centers Helen among her immediate family.

VI 1. JANICE ADELE DOTY b. 31 Oct 1928 wed 28 Jun 1952 George Lauritz Hall Jr. b. 1 Dec 1928.d. Feb 2008. Janice grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. She played violin in the high school orchestra and enjoyed horseback riding. After graduating from Iowa Wesleyan, where she met George, she was a traveling representative for her sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha. After they were married, she and George lived in the Chicago area until a vacation out West enthralled them. They moved their household to Colorado where, for one thing, they could expand their children’s interest in horses. George worked in real estate, Janice taught school and many weekends were spent at horse shows.

Janice had always been interested in horses. She and Marilyn, being the same age, exchanged visits to each other’s homes. The city cousin would visit the country cousin and vice versa. Marilyn remembers trips to children’s theatre in Chicago as Jan rememers the trips to the farm. When the men would come in from the field, the two were right there to be lifted onto the backs of horses or mules as they relieved thirst at the water tank. The scratchy horse netting didn’t matter nor the fact that the tired horses weren’t moving;. Imagination filled in details.

When Jan and Marilyn were about six, the parents were shopping in an Ottawa department store. The girls were playing tag at a sedate pace which gradually quickened. Jan turned the corner around a show case suddenly, and Marilyn, desparate to catch her, slammed into her crouching body. They both ended up sitting in the show case midst broken glass. After the first moment of paralyzed silence, the undamaged miscreants were sent out to the sidewalk to wait. Standing very still with their backs to the wall, they were not at all sure their parents would pick them up.

One year at Clear Lake, Marilyn’s dad suggested she and Jan could catch frogs by jiggling a line with a red-cloth baited hook. So while the men fished out in the lake, the girls edged a row boat along the shore and found the bit of red cloth worked well. The frogs were huge, however, and neither of them wanted to take them off the hook. Two boys living in the next cottage were the solution; the six-year-old put the frogs in a box in the bottom of the boat; the slatted top was not heavy enough to keep the frogs in, so the four-year-old made himself useful by sitting on top of the box. When Ed saw the size of the frogs, he put a stop to the expedition saying these frogs must be especially introduced ones. Aunt Edna made good on her promise to cook frog legs for supper, however.

After living and teaching in Colorado several years Jannice went back to school and earned a Master’s degree in Education. During their retirement Janice and George have spent much of their time on Garden Railroading. This involves not only a good-sized railroad system in their back yard, which at one time ran in and out of a basement window, but trips to train shows and comradery with other railroad buffs. Jan also has an avid interest in geology and local history, and she still teaches as a substitute much of the school year.

VII 1. CAROLE LYNN HALL b. 28 Jan 1954 wed 13 Aug 1977Larry Joseph Kintz b. 12 Sep 1952. Lynn, as she is called, trained as a teacher, then had further schooling and is now principal of a Colorado school, as is husband Larry who started as a music teacher. Early in her career Lynn was challenged with hepatitis which became more and more serious. She waited near Mayo Clinic in Minnesota till a replacement liver was available and now leads a full, productive life. Here she is pictured with Andrew Rasmusen while visiting in Illinois. She has Katie on her lap.

VIII 1. KATIE LYNN KINTZ b 27 Apr 1979 wed 16 Jun 2000Adam Garvert b. 1 Oct 1977

IX 1. ANNA LYNN GARVERT 19 Sep 2004

2. GRACELYN NICOLE 12 Oct 2005

VIII 2. CHRISTOPHER ANDREW b. 8 May 1981

VII 2. SHARON LEE HALL b. 9 Feb 1956 wed 10 Jun 1978 Charles Dennis Wood, later divorced and married 2nd time 2 Nov 2002 Rick Lauer b. 10 Jul 1959. Sharon is also a teacher. She coached swimming at the Air Force Academy High School in Colorado Springs. As a hobby she and her husband raised Malamutes.

VIII 1. MEGHAN LYNN WOOD b. 28 Nov 1983

2. BETHANY ANN WOOD b. 2 May 1988

VII 3. WENDY ANN HALL b. 25 Dec 157 wed 23 Dec 1982 Todd Bevin Mann b. 2 Nov 1958.

Wendy carried on the family tradition by also training in education and teaching. She and Todd spent several years in Alaska where he was in construction.

VIII 1. HEATHER ADELE MANN b. 21 Oct 1986

2. JAMIE LYNN MANN b. 6 Jun 1989

VII 4. CHRISTOPHER GEORGE HALL b. 24 Apr 1960 wed 1984 Paula __ divorced, Chris, after graduating from college, worked in education-related jobs in the Bakersfield, California area. After furthering his expertise with an MBA, he is now Asst. Director of Environmental Education in the Kern County High School District, a large district with 42,000 students. The first year Chris had this position the district saved a million dollars in energy costs.

1. CHRISTOPHER DALE HALL b. 22 Apr 1986

2. MATTHEW HALL b. 15 Feb 1989

married 2nd time 11 Apr 1992 Brenda ___ b. 3 Oct 1960

3. AMY HALL b. 19 Nov 1993

4. ALLIE HALL b. 10 Sep 1995

This completes the description of Helen and Franklin Graf’s eleven children. A picture of the family in about 1901 appears below.

Franklin Dora

Harrison Helen Helen Will Banzet Myra Banzet Edna

Harold Arthur

IV 10. ELIAS GRAF b. 18 Feb 1853 d. 30 May 1947 wed 17 Jan 1879 Celia Hupach (sister of Helen Hupach Graf) b. 17 Jan 1857 d. 25 Jul 1934. Eli was a quiet, gentle man but held various civic offices and was an active farmer on 45th Road south of Somonauk. The January 1894 Reveille has the following news item: “ Eli Graff is recovering from a peculiar affection. Two weeks since he had obstruction of the bowel, he had scarcely got relief from this when he was taken with acute inflamation of a projection of the bowel which had become engorged. This is the condition which L. J. Gage had while in New York and which was cured only by a timely operation. Mr. Graff is doing as well now as can be expected and we hope soon to see him around again.”

The May 1895 newspaper reports that Eli Graf had built a conservatory on his house, no doubt a gift for his wife Celia who loved beautiful things and was a talented artist. She painted the picture of the Graf farm shown previously.

Eli and Celia were on this home farm until 1893 when they moved to her home Hupach farm. They were there until retiring to Somonauk. Some time after Celia died, Eli spent his last years at the Masonic Home in Sullivan, Illinois. He is pictured there at the age of 92.

VI 1. HERBERT MORRISON GRAF b. 1891 d. 1941 wed Vida F. Millace

b. 24 Sep 1886 d. 1937. Herbert was always teased by the Franklin Graf cousins. Once Harrison told him he could tie him up permanently, and of course, Herbert said he couldn’t. Harrison took him to a distant orchard tree of considerable girth, had Herb sit on the ground straddling it, and tied his ankles together. Details of the rescue are lost in the mists of time.

On another occasion many of the Graf boys had been banished upstairs to go to sleep but were rough-housing instead. One of the Nebraska uncles came up and gave Herb a whack in the dark. Herb said indignantly, “It’s me, Herbert!” and the uncle replied, “I know who it is. Go to sleep.” much to the glee of the other cousins.

Herbert had a beautiful voice, all his relatives agree, and sang for local programs and then studied in Chicago. Dora reported that his voice teacher told him he could make a fortune for each of them if Herbert followed instructions; if he would stay out of the night air and wrap a white silk scarf around his throat. Herb said, “No, thanks.” and went into light opera. Here is how he looked during this period.

Vida Millace was born inEngland and educated at theUniversitiy of Berlin, and apparently trained in song and dance. She traveled across the Atlantic on the same liner with Lord and Lady Peale, so she told Dora, and she met Herbert because both were on the stage. The May 5, 1911 issue of the Reveille reads “Several from Somonauk are planning to attend the play, ‘Red Mill’ which will be presented at Aurora Monday evening. Herbert Graf, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eli Graf, will take part in the performance.”

This is a very dry description compared to Dora’s view of the event: “We were all going on the train and were very excited. Herb had the lead and Vida was in the chorus line. During much of the performance Aunt Celia covered her eyes, occasionally turning to Uncle Eli to ask about Vida and say that she hoped Vida wasn’t kicking too high.

At one point Herb was singing ‘Because You’re You’ and the villain was supposed to lock the heroine in the tower of the mill. Vida, who was jealous of the heroine, kept the villain talking backstage. The cue was missed and the heroine had to lock herself up while Herb sang on and on.”

During the Depression Herb and Vida took over his father’s farm, but he was not cut out to be a good farmer. He decided not to vaccinate his pigs and lost the whole herd. Vida got a government job to teach drama and she tried to get work as a waitress. Sadly, Herb found her dead in bed one day; It is said she died of asthma. Herb tried to sell insurance but developed diabetes and also died at a fairly young age.

2. AUGUSTY GRAF , died at nine months of age and is buried with her parents in

the Lutheran cemetery south of Somonauk.

V 11. JOHN EDWARD GRAF b. 26 Apr 1854 d. __ wed May Beal

John went to Nebraska at the same time as Franklin and David to farm one of the 80-acre plots their father had provided the brothers. However, after a few years he and May decided the land was better to the east and moved to Belle Plaine, Iowa. A Nebraska newspaper noted that Franklin Graf sold 160 acres in 1893^[76] ; it is sumised that Frank may have made an earlier purchase of John’s land when he moved to Iowa.

VI 1. PEARL GRAF

2. THERESA GRAF

Dora’s parents gave her a trip to Iowa as a graduation present and she felt very independent traveling there by herself. Aunt May told her, “We’ll get out the good dishes this first night you’re a guest, and then after that you’ll be part of the family and we’ll use the regular place settings.” She really enjoyed cousins Pearl and “Tee”. She said they went to the store and bought cloth and made dresses to wear to a dance the same night.

Unfortunately, both Pearl and “Tee” died young. One of them was married, however, and when Marilyn and Ben were in Los Angeles in 1957, Harold Graf invited this husband to come meet “Dora’s girl”. The man, whose first name was Ray, enjoyed seeing a reminder of “the good old days” and said Marilyn resembled her mother.

V 12. WILHELMINA GRAF b. 2 Mar 1860 d. 6 Sep 1860 Dora said that Louisana from the birth had felt that all was not right. The little sister’s death was keenly felt by Mary Anne who said Wilhelmina was very intelligent. This infant, too, is buried in the Lutheran cemetery with her parents.

The photo below shows some of Samuel and Louisana’s family. Edna Sherman, who as a young girl in Somonauk knew everyone and played at the Hess home with Hazel Jones Anderson (she was raised by her grandmother Mary Hess) identified the picture as follows, “That one on the left is Cussie (Kossuth); then that’s Eli next to him and then Mary Hess. I believe that’s Frank on the right end and I don’t know the other two.”

I asked if one could be Mary’s husband Paul and she said , “No.” Since David was eight years older than John, the tall, younger man next to Mary is assumed to be John. Paul Graf says he had heard that John was “a good-sized man”.This leaves the man next to him as possibly being David.

However, it is reasonable that Sam would be in the picture since he lived nearby in Sheridan, so this man could be Sam rather than David. When compared with the picture of Sam and Julia earlier in this history, a resemblance is noted.

At any rate, this is the history of the Graf family, with dates, lore, and reminiscence

mixed with the actual story, as told by the material I have available- for your perusal, correction and addition.

Marilyn Suppes Rasmusen

August , 2006,