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| With a Built-in labor force of 14 sturdy sons and daughters, shown here, Peter Schommer carved out a self-substaining life for himself and his family that we will never know again. The land he cleared and planted on the shores of Holy Name Lake in the middle 1850's is now farmed by his grandson, Edward Schommer, Jr. Only four of the children, Edward, Sr. Holy Name; Andrew, Victoria, B.C.; Mary, Los Angeles, and Sister Fabian (Eva) a School Sister of Notre Dame, now survive. In the picture the men standing are from left, Frank, Andrew, Arnold, Mike, Peter Jr., and Joseph. Seated in front are Nick, Edward, Peter Sr. Standing between him and Mrs. Schommer, with broach at high neckline and hair parted severely, in the middle, is Annie, in dotted dress and white jabot, and behind her Catherine, with plaid vestee and high collar. Mary in dotted dress like her sister Annie, stands between her mother and brother John. Seated in front are Susan and Eva. | ||
Way Back When....Pioneer Family Made Smooth
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When Peter Schommer came from his native Germany equipped with the broad back and strong muscles the United States needed for its pioneers, he hacked through the big woods to carve out a way of life for himself and his family that we will not know again. He cleared 60 acres on the shores of Holy Name lake, and until his death in 1905 at the age of 65, he and his family led a self sustaining life on land his grandson, Edward Schommer, Jr., now farms. With the help of a built-in labor force, three sturdy sons by his first marriage and 11 sons and daughters, children of his second marriage, he raised the crops and the cattle to feed the family. The fruit cellar with bins of apples, turnips and potatoes, the hams; bacon and sausages in the smoke house, the wood boxes, the cattle, horses and chickens and the grain and hay to feed them all came from the farm. Even the clothes the family wore were made at and home, and in the evening in the warm kitchen, always perfumed by the odor of new-baked bread, mother and daughters knit socks and mittens by the dozen pairs. Mr. Schommer's first wife, Elizabeth Weidenbach, was the mother of five children, two of whom died as children. After her death he married Elizabeth |
Timmers, 19 years his junior, who was horn in Holland. She bore 11 children, four of whom are living, and lived to see dozens and of grandchildren. She died in 1930 at the age of 81. "There must be 70 or more grandchildren, and I can't even begin to count the great and great- great grandchildren," said Mary Schommer, who has lived in Los Angeles for the past 30 years, and is here now visiting her brother, Edward Schommer, Sr., of Holy Name. The other two of the original family still living are Sister Mary Fabian (Eva Schommer) who last July celebrated her 50th anniversary as a School Sister of Notre Dame, and Andrew, whose home is in Vancouver. Miss Schommer finds the area much changed, hut the neighbors, their children and grandchildren are still familiar names - the Leuers, the Ditters, the Mooneys, Polkers, Lubys. She remembers the sleigh rides, the skating on holy Name Lake dances at neighborhood homes, but she has other memories not so nostalgic of cooking, canning, scrubbing, washing, ironing, with what today would not be considered a minimum of convenience. The good old days hack on the farm weren't always like a Saturday Evening Post cover. -- Evelyn Burke |
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