MATHIAS BERMES FAMILY

Henry Bermes and his wife Barbara were both born and died in Germany in 1890. Their son John was born on March 15, 1864 in Germany and married Angela Wermas who was born on December 23, 1868 in Aurora, Kane County, Illinois. John died on November 19, 1939, in Naperville, Illinois and Angela died on March 27, 1953 in Batavia, Illinois. They had six children: William, Mathias, Catherine, Mary, Leonard and Barbara.

Mathias was born on July 14, 1890, and married Mathilda Ehrhart on September 29, 1915, in Naperville and they farmed 136 acres at River Road and Aurora Avenue, which they later bought in 1933 from her father, Edward Ehrhart. Here they raised their six children: Rita married Lucian Yackley and had nine children: Bernice and Donald Barclay had two children: Ralph and Eleanor (Worthel) had six children, Edward and Donna Jean (Tate) had two children: LeRoy and Audrey (Dillon) had six children and Shirley and Jy Fender had five children.

When Matt died on April 27, 1942, Mathilda leased the farm to Will-O-Way Dairy Farm for four years and Ralph helped with the milking and delivered milk to customers in Naperville.

Ralph and Eleanor were married in September 1943 and in November that year Mathilda married Peter Modaff, In 1946, Ralph and Eleanor took over running the farm for his mother and they moved into the lower part of the farm house and Mathilda and Peter and her daughter Shirley moved to the upper part of the house. The Bermeses had two sons when they moved to the farm and a daughter was born when they lived there.

There were 27 cows to milk and they raised pigs, chickens, a goat, a couple of steers and turkeys that roamed the farm. The turkeys were butchered before Thanksgiving and some were sold. Corn, hay, soy beans, oats, and barley were grown on the farm. One of the cows was named “Grandma” and the three children would love to ride her.

During the war, Edward served in the submarine division of the Navy and LeRoy served in the Army.

In 1948, Mathilda, Peter and Shirley moved to a house in town and LeRoy and Audrey were married and moved into the upstairs of the farm house. In December 1951, the barn burned to the ground. Ralph had to sell the cows at a loss. After the fire, Mathilda sold the farm in 1953 and Ralph and his family moved to a farm in Cloverdale that was owned by Mrs. Harry Wright.

The farm was later sold to a developer who build Will-O-Way subdivision.
Fifty years ago most of the farmers were self sufficient because they had their chickens for eggs and meat; their cows for milks for the family and for sale. There were the steers and hogs for meat and everything was used when the animals were butchered in the barn. The hogs feet were pickled, head cheese out of the head, ground up meat for sausage

The pork chops and some of the sausage (made into patties) were cooked until brown and put into layers of lard in crocks, which were stored in the basement to keep cool. The rest of the sausage was made into links.

When a steer was butchered, it was divided in half between Ralph and his mother. If you had a freezer, you would have a professional butcher come and cut it into roasts and steaks. The butcher would package it for the freezer.

The first year, Ralph had his half hanging in the milk house because it was cool in there and he would cut pieces, as the family needed it.

The butcher would take some of the meat to the store and grind it into hamburger.The tongue of the steer was boiled until tender and sliced thin.

The wife would take a big piece of meat and cut it into small pieces and cook it and then place it with some juice from the meat into pint jars to be put into a pan of water in the oven until the lid popped. These came in handy when unexpected guests arrived around dinnertime. When the meat was heated, the juice became gravy.

Cherries were pitted and frozen. Grapes were made into juice and jelly. Apples, dried onions, cabbage, squash and pumpkins were stored in the cool basement.

A large garden was always a must on the farm from which beans were canned or frozen; tomatoes were canned whole or made into juice. The fresh vegetables were served all summer and into the fall.

Traveling threshers would go from farm to farm during harvest times. These were busy times for both husband and wife on the farm. The man would kill two or three chickens and the woman would dress the chicken scald and pull out all the feathers and clean out the insides and cut the chicken into pieces and cool them in cold water.) Then she would bake a couple of pies for lunch. She’d put the chicken in the oven, prepare potatoes and vegetables for the hungry men.

When they were finished eating, the dishes had to be washed and then she would start all over again for the evening meal. 

The threshing would usually take one or two days, In later years, most farmers got their own threshing machines. From then on, it made it a little easier for a farmer’s wife.

11/01