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Job and Rebecca Trotter Standerfer
(1851-1920)
Job and Rebecca Trotter Standerfer
Job's Obituary (pub. Dahlgren Echo, September 9, 1920)
Job Standerfer was born December 15, 1851 and died September 4, 1920. He was the son of John B. and Elizabeth (Shirley) Standerfer. He married Rebecca Trotter, September 7, 1869 in Hamilton County, Illinois. They had seven children, four dead. He leaves his wife, Rebecca, and three children: Laura Bolerjack, Morehouse, Missouri; Kelly Standerfer, Dexter, Missouri; Clarence Standerfer, at home; one sister, Mrs. Amanda Maulding, Belle City; One brother, Hugh Standerfer, Fairfield; one half-sister: Betty Dale, Centrailia; six half brothers: Robert, Delafield; Marshall, Dahlgren; Trap, Dahlgren; Charley, Chicago; Eb, Florida; and Ed, up north; one full brother is dead: Eld. Wilburn Standerfer, d. near Ewing. He is interred at Blooming Grove Cemetery in Hamilton County, Illinois.
Rebecca's Obituary (pub.Times-Leader, October 24, 1935)
Rebecca Trotter Standerfer was born November 16, 1852 in Hamilton County, Illinois. She died October 12, 1935 at the home of her son, Clarence Standerfer. She was the daughter of Robert and Nancy Eleanor (Campbell) Trotter. She married Jobe Standerfer on September 7, 1869. They had seven children; three survive: Kelley of Flint, Michigan; Mrs. Laura Bolerjack of Flint, Michigan; and Clarence of Delafield. She is interred at Blooming Grove Cemetery, Hamilton County, Illinois.
Next, is an excerpt from The Book of Jobe, Years 4 to 14, by Marshall Jobe Standerfer. He was the grandson of Job and Rebecca Trotter. His book highlights his childhood memories while living in Dahlgren, Hamilton County, Illinois. Marshal Jobe Standerfer was born September 9, 1913 and now lives in Mount Morris, MI, at the age of 85.
His memories of Jobe and Rebecca: "One of our trips was in the dead of winter and it was muddy in Illinois. My Grandpa lived behind the school we eventually went to when we moved over there. The mud was up to the buggy wheel hubs and he had two horses pulling us and it was all they could do to get us to the farm. I can remember eating home made sauerkraut from the crock on their back porch. There were ice crystals in it and it even now makes my mouth water just writing about it."
"One one bitter cold night a sow they had, gave birth to a litter of pigs and every one of them froze stiff. I can see my Grandma now holding those little bodies on the chopping block and chopping them up and throwing them into the hog pen where the pigs would devour them, grunting and shoving at each other. Tears were streaming down my grandma's face all the time. Those little pigs had meant something to trade, sell or make bacon and ham to make scratching a living a little bit easier."
....."I also learned to take all you want to eat at Grandma's table and eat all you take. There is nothing much better than sorghum molasses mixed with homemade country butter and sopped up with hot homemade biscuits! I had filled my plate to almost overflowing and naturally I couldn't begin to eat it all. When lunch time came there was a big plate of sorghum and butter waiting for me. That's all I could have and the biscuits were cold and not too good so I had a couple and left the table. And at suppertime there was the same old plate with sorghum, butter and cold biscuits. Well, I finally sopped it all up and the next day got a clean plate. You can bet I didn't mix any butter and molasses that day! I learned right then that sometimes a person's eyes are bigger than his belly and most or all the time now, I take only what I want at that meal and clean up my plate!"
...."My Grandpa Jobe was sick with the dropsy and he would swell up and finally they would tap him just like a sugar maple tree to release the fluid, and then he would be all right for a while."
...." In the fall we would go to Delafield and help Grandma put up stuff for the winter. She had this big old brass kettle that took two big men to carry. We would gather kindling wood to start a fire under it and heavy wood to heat it and keep up the heat. She and Mom would quarter and cut the seeds out of apples until the old kettle would be almost full and we'd start cooking apple butter. Next they put in the cinnamon bark all crumpled up and the odor would start drifting around the neighborhood and we would all fight to use the great big paddle to stir it, always managing to get a little bit on the handle so we could lick it off; and that was better than a job paying a dollar a day!"
..." We went back to Delafield to visit Grandma and Uncle Butch and Zelma, Darrell and Elinor quite often. Grandpa had been dead a few years now and Aunt Mae had died. I remember Grandpa looked about like I do now. He was bald headed except for a fringe of hair around the edges, and not a real big man, although his dropsy swelled him up considerably."
..."One trip down there my Grandma noticed my dirty feet at bedtime and got a pan of water, hot from the reservoir on the kitchen range. She scrubbed and scrubbed and finally she said they were as clean as soap and water could get them and then she put some Bag Balm on them and rubbed and rubbed them until that salve was worked into my feet. ...The one thing she had was love and she gave it us kids and plenty of it too. Any little thing we did right, she would brag us up and hug us and it just made us want to do more for her."
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